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The Care and Management of Lies A Novel of the Great War Jacqueline Winspear Books

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The Care and Management of Lies A Novel of the Great War Jacqueline Winspear Books

The settings: Kent, the breadbasket of England; and Belgium during the Great War, WWI. The characters: Kezia, a clergyman's daughter; her best friend Dorrit, also known as Thea, a schoolteacher; Tom, Thea's brother, a farmer; and a lesser character, Edmund Hawkes, the local landowner. The conflict: surviving the Great War in body and in spirit. The challenge: balancing humanity and love with separation, hunger of all kinds, and the horrors of war.

If you are a fan of Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs detective series, you may be a bit disappointed, as I was, in The Care and Management of Lives. Sometimes the characters are one-dimensional or put in place to illustrate an important historical point, rather than to come alive in the reader's mind and heart as they do in the best Maisie books. The contrasts between rich and poor, home front and war zone, domestic women and activists, can seem forced and make the story a bit disjointed. Last, a reader really has to believe care about food and see it as a metaphor for love to be able to tolerate the constant references to meals, real and imaginary, in the novel. I found it interesting and creative in the beginning and tedious at the end.

Despite those drawbacks, the book reveals the lives, challenges, and courage of the English people during a terrible time in their history. As with the Maisie books, Winspear's historical detail and love and admiration for the people who endured this terrible "war to end all wars" grounds the book and makes this important world-changing event come alive in the day-to-day world of ordinary people. Her treatment of motivations: for joining the army, for fighting for women's rights and pacifism, and for relating to the enemy, is nuanced and humane. If you think you can ignore my reservations, I believe you will find it worth a read.

Also recommended: Skylarks Above No Man's Land, an essay on the author's website.


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The Care and Management of Lies A Novel of the Great War Jacqueline Winspear Books Reviews

A beautifully written book about female friendship, a husband and wife's love for each other, 1900's era British farm life, and the debacle of WW1. Author Winspear's quiet book has three unforgettable main characters. Thea is a strong willed suffragette and peace activist whose close friendship with Kezia is disrupted after she marries Tom, Thea's brother. Kezia is a dreamer but finds that marriage and farm life suit her well, much to Thea's dismay. Tom is a steadfast and likeable man who farms the family land, until he enlists to fight in far off France. Tom is determined to do his duty for his country, like most men of his generation in Britain. Kezia's writes weekly letters about the savory and creatively inspired meals she cooks for Tom, as an expression of her love. Those imaginary meals are a reminder that war takes a terrible toll on not only those who fight but also for those who are left behind.

There are a few other minor characters that are nonetheless just as compelling as the main ones. The farm - with its orchards, fields, gardens, animals, trees and streams - is one character. Another is a wiley farm mare that the farm depends on for its survival. I worried about her just as much as I did about the human character's fates. Would she be taken away by the military to serve on the front lines?

Each character's beliefs, morals and values are challenged as WW1 rages. The terrible depiction of trench warfare, with its rotting corpses, rats as big as cats that feed on dying men, and the daily deprivations soldiers encounter in the cold and mud of France, will not soon be forgotten.The Care and Managment of Lies started out slowly but became a page turner for me. I read ahead at one point, desperate to find out the fate of one of the characters.

I loved this book. I hope Jacqueline Winspear writes a sequel. I'd like to find out what happens to our characters, those that live, after the war ends.
Set at the start of WWI in Kent, England, this story has several interrelated threads. Initially, the conflict is between Kezia, daughter of a preacher who has raised his daughter with a sense of pride and confidence, and her great friend Dorrit (now Thea) who apparently resents Kezia for her decision to marry Thea’s brother Tom as well as the life of a farmer’s wife which will follow. The two become estranged when Thea chooses to become an anti-war protester at the outbreak of the war. Kezia adores Tom and focuses on learning to cook, becoming very creative with the dishes she prepares. When Tom goes off to the war, Kezia writes lovely letters to him (which he shares with his fellow soldiers) about the wonderful meals she is creating and her success in managing the farm without him. In fact, she has little to eat and must struggle daily to keep the farm going. Tom, meanwhile, has been made the victim of a vicious and bullying sergeant for unknown reasons. The sergeant repeatedly puts him in danger and eventually accuses him of sleeping on watch, a crime punishable by death. When the court martial exonerates him, he tries to shoot Tom during combat, but is killed by an officer who is both a neighbor and admirer of Tom. Thea is also in France driving an ambulance. The lies of the title refer primarily to Kezia’s effective attempts to ease Tom’s time in danger. As in her novels featuring Maisie Dobbs, Winspear develops character and place extremely well, all while she reveals accurate detail about the war.
The settings Kent, the breadbasket of England; and Belgium during the Great War, WWI. The characters Kezia, a clergyman's daughter; her best friend Dorrit, also known as Thea, a schoolteacher; Tom, Thea's brother, a farmer; and a lesser character, Edmund Hawkes, the local landowner. The conflict surviving the Great War in body and in spirit. The challenge balancing humanity and love with separation, hunger of all kinds, and the horrors of war.

If you are a fan of Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs detective series, you may be a bit disappointed, as I was, in The Care and Management of Lives. Sometimes the characters are one-dimensional or put in place to illustrate an important historical point, rather than to come alive in the reader's mind and heart as they do in the best Maisie books. The contrasts between rich and poor, home front and war zone, domestic women and activists, can seem forced and make the story a bit disjointed. Last, a reader really has to believe care about food and see it as a metaphor for love to be able to tolerate the constant references to meals, real and imaginary, in the novel. I found it interesting and creative in the beginning and tedious at the end.

Despite those drawbacks, the book reveals the lives, challenges, and courage of the English people during a terrible time in their history. As with the Maisie books, Winspear's historical detail and love and admiration for the people who endured this terrible "war to end all wars" grounds the book and makes this important world-changing event come alive in the day-to-day world of ordinary people. Her treatment of motivations for joining the army, for fighting for women's rights and pacifism, and for relating to the enemy, is nuanced and humane. If you think you can ignore my reservations, I believe you will find it worth a read.

Also recommended Skylarks Above No Man's Land, an essay on the author's website.