A Season in Sinji by J.L. Carr – author of the brilliant A Month in The Country https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/09/a-month-in-country-by-jl-carr-10-out-of.html both included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list - 10 out of 10

 

A Season in Sinji by J.L. Carr – author of the brilliant A Month in The Country https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/09/a-month-in-country-by-jl-carr-10-out-of.html both included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list

 

10 out of 10

 

This marvelous magnum opus is now one of my favorite reads, and I wonder why it is neglected, yes, it is on the aforementioned list, which has another JL Carr fabulous work, I am sure, although I have not opened it yet, The Harpole Report on the 1,000 Novels compilation, but the internet has little about these landmarks

 

Furthermore, even if it has quite a few pages about cricket, and I am absolutely out of the picture on that, ergo there is no radiance to get from it, A Season in Sinji is monumental, seen from this space, a fabulous combination of humor and tragedy, questioning the meaning of life and laughing at almost everything

Tom Flanders is the narrator, arguably the hero of the story, he takes himself in jest at times, does not avoid self-deprecating humor, but we find him endearing, hope he will succeed, survive, win, however slim the chances are at times – there is logic to apply, when we see him dying, we find hope protesting ‘but he is the story teller, he could not die, for who is telling us what happened then’, we could get it second hand nonetheless

 

The protagonist signs for the RAF, because we have a war on, and he meets Peter Wakerly, the second most important role in this game of life, on this Season in Sinji – they like each other, and become friends, in spite of the difference in education, and class, they could also clash over their love interest, for the same woman

And we find that ‘The whole point of the story stems from Caroline Driffield, they both met her in Budmouth’ – she was out of the hero’s league, class, she was for Wakerly, or as it turns out, for Turton – spoiler alert, you should not be reading further, mainly because this is not really very (Any?) good, I mean my ‘analyses of what is a phenomenal work, and then I will let drop some things about what happens later

 

Caroline has a moment – or maybe it is the whole time – when she invites Tom to walk with her, without Wakerly, and she acts ‘like a cat in heat’, she clearly wants to go further, or ‘all the way, because these were days of here today, gone tomorrow, what with the war, killings’, only our man has no sexual experience

Afraid he will look like a fool, he keeps the distance, resisting the pull of the very handsome, alluring woman, claiming he has to be back at the barracks or something like that, and he loses his only chances, as he will realize and share with the readers, maybe there was no real opportunity there, we will see what destiny, or something else has in store

 

This is where Turton comes into the picture, to play the role of the villain- up to, maybe including the end – ‘he thought himself so damn smart, that he despised the rest and saw us as salvage wallahs…Utter confidence is everything when you're playing to win…Everything!’ we read about the love triangle or square…

Wakerly may have had his chance, but he took to long to clarify his stand, taking a longer route, while Turton pressed on, with a plan from A to Z, showing off and winning the day, and the girl – Tom sees them naked, in her room, intimate and the woman infatuated (maybe it was love, albeit I doubt it) with the ruffian

 

Wakerly and Tom sail off, and the rumors include Florida, and they end up near the coast of Western Africa, where a torpedo sinks the ship, and soldiers are killed in the catastrophe, both our personages survive and they are stationed in Sinji, a rather sordid place, with no bars, nothing to do in terms of entertainment

Some of the descriptions, the tale could be seen as racist – better said, the fictional men, some have relationships with the native women, others refuse, at one point, abominable Turton is on this vehicle, and while he travels with others along the road, he destroys the jars in which poor women carry water, from long distances

 

This when Wakerly takes a noble, courageous, admirable stand and he tells Turton that is he knocks off another jar, he will report him to the higher ranks, which would have been a very damaging action, since superiors do not accept that sort of reporting, and then Turton would have taken revenge anyway, well, he had that, alas

A strange coincidence has Turton arriving in Sinji, and worse, he is in a position to order Wakerly and Tom around, abusing this position, ending by humiliating Peter to the point where he gets depressed, is not interested in anything anymore, a disintegration that will happen to corporal Glapthorn, their superior

 

The latter is in charge of the photographic section, where Peter and tom are his subordinates, Turton, vicious, sadistic as he is, is harassing the two, but in the end, he targets the corporal, who is sinking, becomes obsessed with a poor monkey, caught by the soldiers, tied to a tree, then somehow tamed and accustomed with the barracks

First, the corporal is furious and wants it destroyed, saying this is vermin, if the doctor reports to headquarters that, in fact, the animal provides some entertainment for the troops, eventually, Glapthorn is attached to the monkey, and it gets so sick, he has to care for it, and then see the poor thing die near his bed

Wakerly dies at Sinji, and we find about that half way into the story, at least I kept mum till the end of the note, and it looks for some time that Tom could be in for the big departure, only this could not happen, as I have already said…or could it? I am not really sure actually

 

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”