The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen 1948

Bowen, an Irish-American writer who died in 1973, was a member of the Bloomsbury group and a popular novelist in the mid-20th C.  Her ‘Collected Stories’ runs to over 850 pages and her 10 novels are considered by many to be the best at evoking the world of London during WWII, but she is not much read these days.

Susan Hill, in her ‘Howards End is on the Landing’ chose one of Bowen’s books to be among the Forty Best Books she would take to a desert island, but I chose a different one to read while in London.

‘The Heat of the Day’ takes place in war-time London. The blitz has ended, but the destruction was evident everywhere, blackouts remain, and relationships are disrupted.  There are several story lines woven together in language that reminded me of Virginia Woolf’s ‘stream of consciousness’.  Stella Rodney is the main character. A divorcee and widow, she has been having a two year affair with a British Captain, Robert Kelway when she is approached by Harrison, a shadowy figure who claims that Kelway is a German spy.  He offers to drop the matter if Stella will drop Kelway and sleep with him.  Meanwhile, Stella’s son Roderick, who is in the army,  is named the heir to Mount Morris, a property in Ireland owned by his cousin, Francis, who died suddenly outside London when he was about to visit his wife, cousin Nettie. It is at Francis’ funeral that Harrison first approaches Stella.  Louie, whose husband Tom is fighting in Italy, meets Harrison at an outdoor concert where he is deep in thought and trying to ignore her.  Louie shows up later at a bar where Stella and Harrison are drinking.

All of these characters and stories are woven together skillfully and in superb language which describes feelings, appearances, settings, etc. But at the end of the day, this book just seemed way too long and wordy for me.  Disappointed in Bowen, but one doesn’t hit the bulls-eye every time.