OVERVIEW?: Clouds Among the Stars
Apr. 25th, 2025 02:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllClouds Among the Stars: Victoria Clayton. Harper Collins 2004
The opening of this book, and it’s a cracker, is, ‘The day my father was arrested for murder started promisingly.’
I thought I knew what to expect from Clayton, having read a few of her books before: a romantic comedy of manners, featuring a young, somewhat naïve heroine set in the 1970s (probably because the author was in her 20s in that decade.) But from that opening sentence on, there’s a suggestion that Clayton has a murder mystery in her.
The narrator and heroine is Harriet, aged 22, daughter of Waldo and Clarissa Byng, who met as actors. Waldo is engaged to perform in a production of ‘King Lear’, when his bitter rival, who has the lead role, is killed, and Waldo was the first on stage and so is arrested. Harriet cannot believe that her father would do such a thing, and though she tries her hardest to put a gloss on them, she has a reasonable idea of his faults. Although this and other mysteries are solved – Harriet spends Christmas at an isolated stately home, with an ill-assorted set of guests – the throughline is Harriet leaving (most of) her childhood behind, as she must. She and her siblings have been brought up by bohemian parents who think that there is a Shakespearian quote for every occasion. There are echoes of ‘I Capture The Castle’ and ‘Guard Your Daughters’.
Her father’s situation puts the family under stress – it’s telling that Harriet, not his favourite, is his most regular visitor in remand. They have to turn to an old protégé of Waldo’s when many so-called friends stay away. He insists that all the adult Byng children get a job (quite right, too!) as only the son, Bron, was employed, and he was a ‘resting’ actor. Harriet slowly gains some confidence and perspective, especially after some distance from most of her family, as many things she clung to fall apart.
Will Harriet, the odd one out in her family, ever get her Mr Right as everyone else pairs off? There are reversals and misunderstandings that mean that for Harriet, and therefore the reader, it’s a constant process of learning that what she thought she knew, she did not. It’s often funny, although there are dark undercurrents (such as what happens to Portia, one of Harriet’s sisters) and a page turner.
The opening of this book, and it’s a cracker, is, ‘The day my father was arrested for murder started promisingly.’
I thought I knew what to expect from Clayton, having read a few of her books before: a romantic comedy of manners, featuring a young, somewhat naïve heroine set in the 1970s (probably because the author was in her 20s in that decade.) But from that opening sentence on, there’s a suggestion that Clayton has a murder mystery in her.
The narrator and heroine is Harriet, aged 22, daughter of Waldo and Clarissa Byng, who met as actors. Waldo is engaged to perform in a production of ‘King Lear’, when his bitter rival, who has the lead role, is killed, and Waldo was the first on stage and so is arrested. Harriet cannot believe that her father would do such a thing, and though she tries her hardest to put a gloss on them, she has a reasonable idea of his faults. Although this and other mysteries are solved – Harriet spends Christmas at an isolated stately home, with an ill-assorted set of guests – the throughline is Harriet leaving (most of) her childhood behind, as she must. She and her siblings have been brought up by bohemian parents who think that there is a Shakespearian quote for every occasion. There are echoes of ‘I Capture The Castle’ and ‘Guard Your Daughters’.
Her father’s situation puts the family under stress – it’s telling that Harriet, not his favourite, is his most regular visitor in remand. They have to turn to an old protégé of Waldo’s when many so-called friends stay away. He insists that all the adult Byng children get a job (quite right, too!) as only the son, Bron, was employed, and he was a ‘resting’ actor. Harriet slowly gains some confidence and perspective, especially after some distance from most of her family, as many things she clung to fall apart.
Will Harriet, the odd one out in her family, ever get her Mr Right as everyone else pairs off? There are reversals and misunderstandings that mean that for Harriet, and therefore the reader, it’s a constant process of learning that what she thought she knew, she did not. It’s often funny, although there are dark undercurrents (such as what happens to Portia, one of Harriet’s sisters) and a page turner.
