Book Review: Return to Night
Jan. 6th, 2022 08:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI don’t know if I’ve grown desensitized to Mary Renault, or if Return to Night is simply less agonizing than her other books, but I made it through the whole thing without screaming even once, although there were definitely moments when I went “Oh, Mary, you and your Oedipus complex kink.”
And by “moments” I mean the time that Julian recounts a dream where he kills his father - who died when he was a baby! Can you be Oedipal about a father you never met? I mean in the Freudian sense; obviously Oedipus DID kill a father he’d never met… And Julian’s entire relationship with his mother. And also the fact that I’m like 75% sure that we are meant to believe that when Julian was brought into the cottage hospital with a head injury, he mistook Dr. Hilary Mansel for his mother, or rather a nice version of his mother who actually loves him, and that’s why he fell in love with her.
There’s also a Portentous Cave which is symbolic of both The Womb and Death. Plus Mary Renault’s Thoughts about the Nature of Men and Women. (There might be a novel out there which is not diminished by its author’s theorizing about The Nature of Men and Women, but I haven’t met it yet.)
Okay, I’m making fun of it a bit, because how can you NOT when the author got their id all over the page like this. But actually I mostly enjoyed this book. The main romance between 23-year-old Julian Fleming and 34-year-old Dr. Hilary Mansel is sweeter than anything so laden with Oedipal overtones has any right to be. The book deals honestly with the possible difficulties of this relationship - people might think Hilary got her claws in Julian when he was briefly her patient; Hilary is concerned that Julian’s feelings for her will change as she ages - without cludging up the narrative with unhappiness. Yes, other people might think things (probably will think things, people being people), and yes, feelings do change over time sometimes, but overall Hilary and Julian just seem to make each other happy, and surely that’s the most important thing.
I also really liked Hilary’s friendship with her landlady, Lisa, and Lisa’s relationship with her husband Rupert; Lisa and Rupert adore each other but their natures are so at odds (Lisa is a homebody, Rupert a foreign correspondent with a powerful wanderlust) that it’s hard for them to live together. One of the joys of reading Mary Renault is that the side characters often feel as real as the mains: they are not there just as supporting props, but are people with lives and struggles of their own.
…and okay I did kind of want Hilary and Lisa to fall in love over their cozy evening cups of tea, even though I actually liked both Hilary/Julian and Lisa/Rupert just fine. But also COME ON Hilary and Lisa are RIGHT THERE and they get along SO WELL and they look after each other so sweetly.
And by “moments” I mean the time that Julian recounts a dream where he kills his father - who died when he was a baby! Can you be Oedipal about a father you never met? I mean in the Freudian sense; obviously Oedipus DID kill a father he’d never met… And Julian’s entire relationship with his mother. And also the fact that I’m like 75% sure that we are meant to believe that when Julian was brought into the cottage hospital with a head injury, he mistook Dr. Hilary Mansel for his mother, or rather a nice version of his mother who actually loves him, and that’s why he fell in love with her.
There’s also a Portentous Cave which is symbolic of both The Womb and Death. Plus Mary Renault’s Thoughts about the Nature of Men and Women. (There might be a novel out there which is not diminished by its author’s theorizing about The Nature of Men and Women, but I haven’t met it yet.)
Okay, I’m making fun of it a bit, because how can you NOT when the author got their id all over the page like this. But actually I mostly enjoyed this book. The main romance between 23-year-old Julian Fleming and 34-year-old Dr. Hilary Mansel is sweeter than anything so laden with Oedipal overtones has any right to be. The book deals honestly with the possible difficulties of this relationship - people might think Hilary got her claws in Julian when he was briefly her patient; Hilary is concerned that Julian’s feelings for her will change as she ages - without cludging up the narrative with unhappiness. Yes, other people might think things (probably will think things, people being people), and yes, feelings do change over time sometimes, but overall Hilary and Julian just seem to make each other happy, and surely that’s the most important thing.
I also really liked Hilary’s friendship with her landlady, Lisa, and Lisa’s relationship with her husband Rupert; Lisa and Rupert adore each other but their natures are so at odds (Lisa is a homebody, Rupert a foreign correspondent with a powerful wanderlust) that it’s hard for them to live together. One of the joys of reading Mary Renault is that the side characters often feel as real as the mains: they are not there just as supporting props, but are people with lives and struggles of their own.
…and okay I did kind of want Hilary and Lisa to fall in love over their cozy evening cups of tea, even though I actually liked both Hilary/Julian and Lisa/Rupert just fine. But also COME ON Hilary and Lisa are RIGHT THERE and they get along SO WELL and they look after each other so sweetly.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-06 07:38 pm (UTC)Oh dear, I think your 75% suspicion is probably correct.
Aah, I completely agree about Hilary/Lisa! So lovely. But far too sensible a pairing for a Renault novel, I'm afraid :D
(Although, mind you, Sam and James—who are in a scene cut from some editions of this book, did you get them?—are a good one).
no subject
Date: 2022-01-06 08:20 pm (UTC)My edition didn't have the Sam scene but someone transcribed it over on
no subject
Date: 2022-01-07 02:56 am (UTC)Now I want a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead-style fic of Sam and James dodging the Author's efforts to make them bigger characters and thus having to have a dysfunctional relationship. ("But I don't want to have an Oedipus complex, thank you!")
no subject
Date: 2022-01-07 11:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-01-07 02:02 pm (UTC)"I would rather not!" yells Sam.
But Renault is relentlessly, and in the end Sam and James grab hands and leap entirely out of the book to escape.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-07 11:57 am (UTC)Oh, good! Sam and James are lovely, it's such a shame they were cut. Although, heh, that's very true.
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Date: 2022-01-07 11:14 pm (UTC)"SO SORRY, WE DIED AND LEFT NO FORWARDING ADDRESS" has worked for decades! Especially pre-internet.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-07 11:30 pm (UTC)HOWEVER. If Julian DOES make a success of theater, it will be almost impossible to keep his mother from knowing that he is, at least, alive, as his photo may end up splashed all over the pages of magazines etc. I think their best hope is that she will be SO OFFENDED by his insistence on pursuing a theatrical career that she maintains an icy silence toward them.
...However if there do end up being grandchildren, they should do their dardnest to ensure she doesn't find out about it, because Mrs. Fleming strikes me as someone who would feel it was her DUTY to be around that grandchild as much as possible in order to set a "good example."