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In the aftermath of the Great War, Dennis Beaumont returns to London a haunted man. He finds himself unable to successfully return to his previous existence. Carelessly unfaithful, capricious and misanthropic, Beaumont could easily be a loathsome protagonist, but somehow he's sympathetic – relatable, even. Perhaps it's the strong sense of his postwar disenchantment and trauma; perhaps it's simply that he's so very, horribly human.Beaumont's London is luridly realised, a soup of misery peopled by...
A beautifully written novella of almost perfect pace and length, detailing the return of a demobbed WWI soldier to an England he no longer recognises or feels part of; also, a subtly unnerving tale of uncanny, almost Faustian, events, capped with a subtly pitched ending.
Originally published at Risingshadow.Nina Allan's The Harlequin is a harrowingly dark novella that won The Novella Award 2015. It's one of the finest novellas I've read this year. It's a beautifully written and elegantly told story that kept me spellbound until the last word.This novella has quiet and tender beauty that is nicely balanced by darkness and brutality. Because this kind of a combination has always appealed to me, I was impressed by the story and its atmosphere. I found the story tou...
Intricate, harrowing, demanding. The story of an unsettling peacetime nightmare experienced by a man who never escaped from the nightmare of war. An excellent read.
Thoroughly enjoyed this novella from Nina Allen which contains just the lightest touch of the (possible) supernatural but which is predominantly a tale of guilt and regret, reinvention and war, love and what passes for love. Set just after the First World War, Beaumont drifts back to England and the life he once had, however his experiences jar with the reality that everyone else is trying to wear to return to normal and he struggles to know where or how he might fit. As usual with Allen, both h...
A clever and imaginative speculative story about the catastrophic effects of war (Great War) on its survivors. Had I’d been told that this had been written in the 30s or 40s by one of the leading writers of the time, I’d have believed it.
Allan's writing is great even when the theme or story isn't quite to my taste. I am not quite sure what to make of this novella, and at the end of the day I can't say I enjoyed it, but it was evocative, gripping and sad. (TW for intimate partner violence like whoa though.)
‘The Harlequin’ is an unsettling novella following the return of Dennis Beaumont from the battlefields of the First World War. A conscientious objector, he was nonetheless on the front lines as an ambulance driver and is haunted by the appalling suffering he witnessed. Although the narrative isn’t in the first person, it sticks very closely to Beaumont, in fact too close for comfort. Also included are excerpts from his writing, in which he attempts to make sense of what he witnessed during the w...
A subtle and disquieting story documenting a man's slide into madness and from there to darker places still. The characters are rich, real in their troubles, and the shift that transforms the tale is masterfully gripping.
Unpleasant, in a good way.
A grim and somber (and freshly award-winning) novella about a man's return home from WWI. Haunted by specters real and possibly unreal, he struggles to adjust to a life that no longer fits, if it ever did. Written by one of the finest writers I've ever encountered, this story defies labels of horror and SF, while at the same time invoking those senses. Allan has this way of getting into the heads of her characters, of exploring completely and compactly, and, like her last acclaimed novel, The Ra...
