A Long Walk in Wintertime (by Libby Purves)

(Amazon UK link)

Libby Purves is best known as a broadcaster and journalist. She has written eight novels, mostly focusing in a low-key way on family problems and their resolutions. Her media background is perhaps what helps her to touch realistically upon contemporary issues in fiction, to raise awareness without judgement or preaching. I have just finished 'A Long Walk in Wintertime', and thoroughly enjoyed it.

This is a fairly short novel - only 275 pages in paperback - yet as I read, I felt as if I was transported to the lives of the people concerned. I began it last Sunday morning, read most of the afternoon, a few chapters at a time, and by 10.00pm was so eager to know what happened that I continued reading way past my normal bedtime until I got to the highly satisfactory ending.

As with so many books, A Long Walk in Wintertime doesn't fit any genre easily. It's likely to appeal mainly to women, and it's modern (set in 1996, the year it was written). It is rather thought-provoking in places, and has no explicit scenes, so it can't really be considered chick-lit. It contains an adventure with a bit of suspense, but it's certainly not a thriller. It's both character-driven and plot-driven, and it raises a few contemporary 'issues' - but in such a low-key way that they don't dominate the book. There's some satirical humour, but I wouldn't call it an amusing book overall.

As the blurb on the back says, this book is about Alice and Dan, who are happily married until a crisis hits them. Each then has to grow and learn separately before they can overcome the crisis and move forward.

It's also about family life, since they have two teenagers: Clem, a confident, sporty, organised girl of fourteen, and Jamie, a quiet, artistic, rather withdrawn boy of twelve. As the book opens, we learn that Clem has decided to attend a specialist sports boarding school. To do so, she's done all the research, made most of her own arrangements, and even won a scholarship to enable her parents to afford it.

Jamie, by contrast, is desperately unhappy at his comprehensive school where the art teacher considers his design-work to be rubbish. My heart went out to Jamie immediately, particularly when it seems that the only person who really understood how he was feeling is his sister.

The dialogue flows smoothly and easily. The characters are clearly established and separate; perhaps slightly caricatured, but not unbelievably so. Their actions and speech tells us all we need to know about them, and each sentence moves the book forward at just the right pace for my tastes.

Unlike family sagas, there are no scenic descriptions in this book. It's set initially in London, and then in Norfolk, but although the writing mentions specific places and streets, there's no extraneous description. We see places through the eyes of the characters, who are already used to what they see, rather than being told what a newcomer might observe. I find this refreshing and very much appreciate it.

The whole concept of the importance of marriage and family life is raised in this book many times, and considered at different levels. Alice, who almost believes herself to be part of one of her favourite operas at times, has to deal with emotions in the real world which are far removed from those on stage.

There is also significant focus on education, something I particularly appreciated. Libby Purves does not hold a rose-coloured view of British schooling! The comprehensive school in London which Jamie attends at the start of the book is clearly unsuited to his personality. As his parents become more self-absorbed with their own problems, and with Clem away at boarding school, we see Jamie neglected emotionally and his favourite hobby becoming an obsession. When, later in the book, the opportunity comes for him to do something creative that built his self-esteem, even though it means missing several weeks of school, the advantages are pointed out clearly.

As well as these major issues, the novel touches lightly on career-women, traditional upwardly-mobile families and gay couples. Each of these is somewhat stereotyped in behaviour and mannerisms, but I didn't find that to be a disadvantage. They were still believable people, with deep emotions that were perhaps all the more striking when coming from caricatured types.

To my mind, the biggest potential disadvantage of this book is the title! 'A Long Walk in Wintertime' implies something slow-moving, with a focus on snow and cold. While the book does mostly take place in winter, the pace is rapid and there's very little walking. However it was only afterwards, looking at the Christmas-card scene on the front of the book, that I realised how incongruous it was.

There's also rather more coincidence than is usually accepted in a novel, and one or two unlikely events - but although I can be a pedant, these didn't detract at all from my enjoyment of the book. Perhaps this is because they were tinged with humour. It was only after finishing, and thinking it over, that I realised I had become so involved in this world that I accepted these events without question.

All in all, for anyone wanting a relatively short, enjoyable read with emotion, humour, and a 'feel-good' ending, I can highly recommend this book.

Review copyright 2004 Sue's Book Reviews