'The English Girl' by Margaret Leroy - Review by Maggie Rainey-Smith

'The English Girl'

by Margaret Leroy

Published by Sphere 2013 - RRP $37.99

Review by Maggie Rainy-Smith

This is the first book I've read by Margaret Leroy, and so I went to her website and found she has thirteen previous novels to her name, the first written in 1999. On the attractive cover of the book is a quote from  Fay Weldon, who says  'What a storyteller Leroy is'. I agree. This is a very well crafted story and it felt like a movie as it unfolded - with all the elements for the big screen, with the clever mix of romantic love, innocence, intrigue, almost espionage, music and the shadow of war, to the moment we now know in history, as anschluss.

                The writing is very good and I knew I was in the hands of an author who understood her craft.  Even when I second-guessed elements of the plot - for this is a plot driven story - I didn't mind, I enjoyed the 'setting up' and knowing what was happening, although I didn't always guess correctly.

                Stella Whittaker is a young English pianist whose musical talent is recognised by a Dr Zaslavsky while visiting England. He offers her a place at the Vienna Academy of Music and the Performing Arts. Her mother is widowed and they're not very well off, so at first it's uncertain she can go, but accommodation is found with Rainer and Marthe Krause, old friends of her mother  - 'some people I knew long ago. They live in Vienna'.  

                The novel is framed by two important train journeys; Stella's journey towards Vienna and her journey away from Vienna. She begins what she believes is her real life on 8 September 1937, which is the date she arrives in Vienna. Stella is the epitome of beauty and innocence and blessed with musical talent. She falls in love with a Jewish Doctor, unaware of the political undertones in the very household where she is living and oblivious to or wishing to ignore her mother's concerns 'about the international situation: Germany re-arming; the terrible civil war in Spain.'

                Through Stella's initially innocent eyes,  the reader experiences the elegant beauty of pre-war Vienna.  As the novel progresses, eventually,  Stella has two lives.   The one she lives with Rainer and Marthe and her inappropriate and somewhat illicit romance with Harri the Jewish Doctor. Harri is studying Freud and Stella in awe of Harri begins trying to read and understand Freud. I wasn't so sure this thread was necessary, but it adds a dimension to their courtship and romance and amplifies Stella's innocence and Harri's worldliness in comparison.  

                The Jewish story in Europe during the Second World War is not new, and yet, this story still has elements of originality and surprise.   I've been thinking about how novels unfold, and character versus plot.  In this novel, the characters pretty much play their part to enable the plot to unravel.   The narrative moves to present tense, once Stella has arrived in Vienna, and this for me enhanced the 'filmic' experience as the narrative unfolded.   It generated a sense of moving forward all the time rather than the contemplative nature of a novel where character is foremost.  Music (Chopin) plays a big part and as I'm not a classical music buff, I turned to you-tube to listen to the music when it seemed important to the plot.   But again, I kept thinking how well it would work in a movie.

                Over the years, I've eschewed 'romantic' novels and it's only through reviewing that I've been reintroduced to the delights. Leroy has a gift for creating pictures with words, and her writing is light without being lightweight.   It's quite a beautiful and sad story, and although at times I didn't totally believe in Stella - her transition from innocence to quite suddenly the lover of Harri - it is another interesting look at ordinary people on both sides of the story of war - the way overnight a city could change so dramatically, the moment we know in history as the anschluss. 

About the reviewer:

Maggie Rainey-Smith is a Wellington writer and regular reviewer on Beattie's Book Blog. She is also Chair of the Wellington branch of the NZ Society of Authors.