Noonday Hardcover – 27 Aug. 2015

Noonday is the conclusion of Pat Barker's Life Class trilogy. I'm a fan of both Pat Barker's work and war novels generally (probably as a result of reading the Regeneration trilogy years ago!) so I'd recommend reading all three books in order.This volume brings the characters forward to WWII. At the beginning artist Elinor is in the country with her rather more straight-laced sister Rachel waiting and watching while their mother dies. Barker handles the juxtaposition of this small domestic tragedy and the enormity of the blitz with sensitivity. Much of the action is set in London in the nighttime during the blackouts and air raids - Elinor's husband Paul is an air raid warden, while Elinor herself is an ambulance driver working alongside their old friend Kit Neville. As fans of Barker's writing would expect, she brings this nightmare world to life, making the unimaginably horrific all too real. Add to the mix a cheeky evacuee named Kenny and Bertha a medium, recently released from prison for charlatanism and you have all the ingredients for a novel I couldn't put down.

An excellent and absorbing book. Although I had read the first 2 novels in the trilogy several years ago I had no difficulty in following the thread of 'Noonday'. The descriptions of life in the blitz are some of the most powerful I have come across - Barker uses the minutiae, delicately described, to create a real sense of the growing horror. I recall London as a child, full of houses without walls, peering into the abandoned lives and bomb sites with rampant growth - but this book brought home what it must have been like to be alive when that destruction as happening. The total uncertainty, the exhaustion. It also seemed to be an especially pertinent time to be reading it as so many people in Syria are experiencing a similar or even greater level of destruction of their homes and livelihoods.

This is the final novel in Pat Barker's trilogy about a group of artists' lives and work during and between the two World Wars. I enjoyed the change of time setting to England, particularly London, during the Blitz. However Pat Barker's forte is really the First World War, and I didn't find her depiction of this period as convincing as the earlier one (cf. Sarah Waters' 'The Night Watch'). It was interesting to learn about the later lives of the main characters (Elinor, Paul & Kit), and to gain a deeper understanding of their good and bad points, and in this respect it was worth having a third part to their story. .

This is a story of three characters (Elinor, Paul and Kit) living through the Blitz of WW2 and its aftermath. It really helps to have read the previous two titles in this trilogy (Life Class and Toby’s Room) as the relationships among the three main characters are more fully explored in those books. Their relationships with other characters, for example Tonks and Elinor’s brother Toby, are also better understood if the previous two books have been read.I found the passages about different aspects of the war, such as the Government’s policy of evacuation and, especially, the London Blitz, excellent and wonderfully evocative of the horrors of the time. I cannot comment on the authenticity of the descriptions of artists’ lives but all artists are not created equal and will surely have different methods of working.My main criticism would be the inclusion of Bertha, a “materialisation medium”. I failed to understand the relevance and it detracted from the main themes of the book. Perhaps there is a subliminal aspect here but I suspect most readers will fail to be aware of the novelist’s thought processes that caused her to include these passages on clairvoyance.Overall though, a good book that provides a satisfactory conclusion to the trilogy. Perhaps not up to the standard of the Regeneration trilogy but how could it be?

Pat barker is one of my favourite authors and never disappoints. This novel brings to life all the horrors of the blitz and how it affects different people. You need to read Life class and Tobys room to truly understand the characters, but you won't be disappointed. These first two are set during the first world war. Highly recommended.

What a great trilogy, the story needs to continue as the characters come alive. I still feel I need to know what happens as the third ends with bringing an old character back alive, what happened to him!

Totally disappointing especially the filler pages about the 'medium' which I found untterly unconvincling and boring. Toby's Room was the best of the trilogy.

Amazing novel which pulls no punches with her description of the Blitz.

Pat Barker is one of my favorite writers and this book does not disappoint, Writing about WWII finds her prose a bit more blunt and closer to the earthiness of her contemporary novels compared with the Regeneration Trilogy and the first two books of this trilogy. She really seems to get inside the horror and strange terror of living through the blitz.

Pat Barker の最新作。Life Class、Toby's Room に続く３部作の３作目。前２作では the Great War（第１次世界大戦）前後の混乱の中で、美術学校に学ぶ若者たちが懸命に人生を模索する姿を描いていたが、本作では彼らが中年にさしかかって、今度は第２次世界大戦に巻き込まれていく様子を描いている。The Great War では戦況は主にフランス戦線であったが、1940年9月からの数か月、今度はまさにロンドンがドイツ空軍による電撃的空襲にさらされる。The Great War 収束後、Elinor と Paul は結婚し、Neville も重症から回復して Elinor の友人と結婚し、それぞれの人生を送っていたが、またもや起こった大戦のなかに、否応なく呑み込まれ翻弄されていく彼らの生活。Elinor と Neville は被災者を病院に搬送する救急車のドライバーとして、Paul は被災地域の warden として働く。若いころのフランス戦線での塹壕での悪夢と、空襲を受けて倒壊する建物に閉じ込められるロンドン市民の窮状が重なって苦しむ Paul たち。本書の大部分がこのロンドン大空襲のようすをまざまざと描き出しており、そんな状況の中でロンドン市民はいかに生きたかを描き出すことが著者の一番の意図であるように思われる。同時に、そうした状況の中でも、あるいは緊迫した状況であるからこそ、彼らのお互いに対する愛や友情は、確かめあわなければならないものとして様々に揺れる。今確かめなければ明日はないかもしれない、と。Elinor の母親の死、Toby への想い、ロンドンから一時離れて田舎に移り済んだ際に預かった一人の少年の行方、死者を呼び出すことができるという謎の女との出会い、などいくつかのエピソードも盛り込んで、重層な構成になっている。重苦しい展開が続くが、最後の場面は何度も読み返したくなるような希望が垣間見られた。

I'm one of Mrs.Baker's staunchest fans. But "Noonday" doesn't measure up to her earlier trilogies,or single titles. The simple reason is that this title is scattershot. There's no uniting character or sensibility,as there have been in earlier books. One settles in and finds friends on the page,but then one finds those "friends" are splintered in terms of time and attention,and progress of character. While Mrs.Barker is a master at destruction,describing the results of London's blitz better than nearly any other we can name, we've earlier read her on this sad topic and marveled at her skill. Which, incidentally, i.e., her skill, surfaces at brilliant and odd moments and thrills the reader as he had hoped: "Half an hour into the meeting, wreathes of cigarette smoke hung stagnant on the air, swirling a little when a secretary came in with tea and biscuits, before settling into new patterns, rather like the marbled endpapers of books." That, folks, is a Booker Prize winner speaking.Fond as we grow of Elinor, who doesn't quite have our entire sympathy this time,and her ever-increasing circle of family, co-workers,friends,colleagues who are night fire wardens, what's missing is Mrs. Barker's unique sympathy for them all. Even her relationship with her brother Tony, incestuous but tentative, is too lightly limned in this last volume of her trilogy.Whereas after reading earlier entries in the series, one is aching to know what happened next to the quirky,touching,lost and found menand women to whom she has treated us. On closing "Noonday," one is determined not to let one's admiration waver, but it's tough.JOHN NEUFELD, author ofLISA, BRIGHT AND DARK and EDGAR ALLAN (both Kindled)

I read the review of this book in the New York Times and thought that it looked interesting. The book lived up to its description and did not disappoint. I did not realize that it was the final book in a trilogy, but this did not affect the story at all as it is a total stand alone novel. There was not a great deal of violence other than war related descriptions, and the sexual content was more suggestive than graphic, in all cases, there was absolutely nothing offensive to me. I did have a bit of trouble from the opening chapters adjusting to the characters and their relationships to each other, but it all came together as the book progressed. There were some stories within the story that somehow came together nicely in the end, particularly the mystery about Kenny. I can't say more for fear of saying too much ! I enjoyed the description of war time london and the interaction of the ambulance drivers and care givers who braved the blitz and somehow were able to deal with the conditions that they were faced with. A very entertaining story, one of probably millions of other stories that will probably never be told, but this was, in my opinion, quite representative of many.

Don't expect the depth, the realism, the deeply conflicted and anguished characters of Barker's First World War. In Noonday,Pat Barker 'does' the blitz. But somehow it never really comes off. Yes the fear, the wanton random destruction, the deprivation and long hours of boredom while waiting or even, as the firemen, while acting are all represented but that's it it feels like an obligatory representation. In the Resurrection trilogy the historical and the imaginary weave together to make a rich believable whole. The historical figures here are cardboard cutouts. The upper middle class inhabitants of Noonday are able to eat and drink well, find new digs to order, run away to the country etc. The main protagonists move in a landscape of privilege despite the bombings.And that awfully convenient and coincidental ending... one can feel the shoelace being tied. Nice and neat.

But in reality, the last of six novels Barker has written, mostly about WW1, but this last, taking her cast of characters into London and the blitz.Barker has a habit of skillfully integrating historical and fictional characters into her novels, some using their real names, some fictional names. And integrating art and war, war and art.I love her writing. What is it about British novelists, their eloquence is unparalleled.The first of this trilogy is Life Class. Make the commitment, you will be so pleased that you did.

With NOONDAY Pat Barker—the significance of the title will make your shudder-- brings to a close a trilogy. The first two novels were LIFE CLASS, which I have not read, and TOBY’S ROOM, which I have. This final volume is set in London in 1940. Some of the characters—notably Elinor, Paul and Kit return. And of course there is always the ghost of Toby, who did not survive the First World War. Elinor thinks constantly of her handsome brother who, like many others, was one of the war’s casualties. The character Alex she notices looks like Toby. “Suddenly he [Alex] did actually look like Toby; Toby as he had been when he first came home on leave. . . now she saw how alike they really were , and it stopped her breath.” As if these characters did not have enough of war in the so-called Great War, they like the most of the rest of the world—of course the U. S. will become involved after Pearl Harbour--- find themselves in the throes of the Second World War. During the Blitz, Elinor and Kit are unlikely comrades as ambulance drivers; Elinor’s husband Paul is an anti-raid warden. Ms. Barker adds two more significant characters: the young Kenny and the “Witch of Endor.” The chapter in which she conducts a séance will almost stand alone. It is a fantastic account of the sham of calling the dead back to life for longing relatives.I can think of few writers more skilled in setting a tone of utter gloom, that which you would expect in a story where Londoners are constantly going to and from shelters. Not many fringed gentians grow here although these characters do attempt to make their lives—however unsuccessfully-- as close to normal as possible. But Paul remembers that “we are outside of time.” He also recalls the pawnshop—if you want to talk about atmosphere—surely anyone who has ever been inside one of these businesses can bear witness—that his grandmother owned as he comes upon another on a night walk in London: “On the corner there was a pawnshop. . . “In the window, as he had expected, were rows and rows of little white cards offering rings—most poignantly wedding rings—for sale. Probably they’d been pawned over and over again until some worsening of an already desperate situation meant they couldn’t be redeemed.” And if this scene isn’t poignant enough, when Paul and another warden discover an old couple lying on their backs holding hands in death (these are not major characters so I am not giving much of the plot away; this is, however, a novel about Hitler’s forces bombing London so we know at the outset that people will die), this scene is worthy of a Philip Larkin poem and just as deadly. Then there is the Jack Russell dog. In another passage a window in a building lets in a “grudging light.” Finally the last twenty or so pages of the novel are devastating.The author is always two steps ahead of the reader as her narrative, when it gets going, doesn’t stop. Her message is clear: war is horrific.

Not Barker's best. Fails at creating empathy with protagonist. When Barker writes about the war and impact on London, the writing is passionate and engaging. Characterization falls flat. Reader is left caring little for the characters in the book, and more for the historical backdrop. Book either needed humanizing, or better editing. LOVED all of the other book in Barkers trilogy.Still, a weak Barker book is better than most novels out there....Barker is a superb writer

A great read from a great author. If you have read "Life Class" this book answers some questions but as always with Pat Barker this book also asks many also. No heroes just real people not always doing classy things or reaching good decisions, but this book will touch you, make you angry and sad, make you think and keep you up til the end.

Barker has an amazing way with language. She can truly make you feel a semblance of what it was like to live during the blitz. Not an easy task. She writes with such texture and honesty. Even when the story itself is lacking, as I felt it was here, I was drawn in. Though not quite on the same level as the regeneration trilogy, still very worthwhile.

"Noonday" is British author Pat Barker's third volume in her Slade School trilogy. The books began prior to WW1 and featured an upper class family - the Brookes - and others in their lives. Many of the characters were artists - students at the Slade School of Fine Art - and WW1 was the focal point of the books. This third book is set in the early blitz days of WW2 and follows the lives of Kit Neville, Elinor Brooke, and Paul Tarrant as they face the war in London as the bombs kill and injure thousands of people and destroy thousands of buildings.I had read the two previous novels - "Life Class" and "Toby's Room" - but I can't quite decide if you should read the first two to enjoy - and appreciate - Barker's third. Because of the number of years between "Toby's Room" and "Noonday", Barker has to bring the lives of her three main characters up-to-date. Obviously, characters married and moved on with their lives but meet again in the blitz. That's the part that is a bit lacking but her "London in 1940" is marvelously drawn. The reader is given an almost micro-level view of the devastation. She introduces characters that Elinor and Kit - who are both blitz workers - get involved with. Kenny, a young red-headed school boy who had been sent to live with Elinor's family outside of London to escape the bombings is a rather unforgettable character.Pat Barker is a small writer, who makes personal issues important within the larger picture. "Noonday" is a good third novel.

A real writer writing about real events, even if it is fiction. Nothing about this book feels false, unlike so many others. Waiting a year to read it again. (I have a bad memory, it will be like reading it for the first time with the same enjoyment!)

It isn't a terrible novel, but it can be really confusing at times. It still reflects upon the first two novels but not in an overt way. I had used it for a World War 2 literature class, so I haven't read the others.

Pat Barker shows the devastating effects of war on civilians. The blitz was terrible. Americans have not experienced anything like it. It's also a story about relationships and the needs of a man and woman who are both artists.

This is the third novel of the series. It seems that Pat Barker just ground out a novel to finish the series. A bit weird.