Day

by A.L. Kennedy

Paperback, 2008

Status

Available

Call number

823.914

Genres

Publication

Vintage (2008), Paperback, 288 pages

Description

Alfred Day wanted his war. In its turmoil he found his proper purpose as the tail-gunner in a Lancaster bomber; he found the wild, dark fellowship of his crew, and - most extraordinary of all - he found Joyce, a woman to love. But that's all gone now - the war took it away. Maybe it took him, too.

User reviews

LibraryThing member edwinbcn

This was a difficult book to read, and I had to read it twice to make sense of it. Even reviewing it here makes it necessary to go back to the book, and see that there are still a multitude of strands that I have left, or should have looked at more closely. Day, a novel written by the British

novelist A.L. Kennedy is clearly, cleverly crafted, requiring a great effort on the part of the reader to stay with her. Perhaps that is why the reader is so often admonished in the 2nd person (singular or plural).

As the main character's name is Alfred Day, the novel's title is Day, but it might as well have been "Night", as the book reads like a nightmare, Alfred's nightmare. There is another, parallel juxtaposition between "joy", the moments of joy Alfred experiences with his girlfriend Joyce, and what would be the opposite of "joy", gloom or depression. As a matter of fact, the book is full of parallels.

The book is also very much about the way the mind works, as for narrative technique, and this is what makes the book difficult, but also interesting. Maybe we could say the mind works with parallels, good versus bad, past versus present, present versus future, joy versus gloom, etc. Another feature of thought is that it is not necessarily chronological. A chronological recall depends on control, but uncontrolled memories surface randomly, without any particular order or pattern. Another feature of the mind is a kind of multi-tasking, i.e. while engaged in one activity, the brain may still, fully consciously register and allow for comment of other observations. For example, I may be having a conversation with a friend, and at the same time make an unspoken comment of the tea, or make an unspoken comment on things I see happening behind my friends' back. These unspoken asides, are different from stream-of-concious, and not part of the narrative. Rather, they are a kind of interior monologue, but very random and very unfocussed, very short and often "unedited", i.e. using pretty rude vernacular. In the novel, these unspoken asides appear in italics throughout the book. The difficulty in reading the book is its apparent lack of control of the narrative voice, lack of chronology and many asides. In a way, we are inside the mind of Alfred Day.

The plot, reconstructed, is not that difficult. Alfred Day grows up somewhere in England. His father abuses, and kills his mother, an act later revenged by Alfred in a striking parallel fashion. Alfred joins the RAF, is shot down over Nazi Germany and interned in a POW camp. After the war, he re-lives the experiences of the camp on a film set, the stage of the film is basically his own life at the POW camp. As in Shakespeare, this sets the scene for a total confusion of reality and fiction, an excellent canvas for the mind boggling confusion of right and wrong, good and bad, real and unreal, true and false, sane or mad, and the all pervading theme of joy versus gloom, trauma and guilt.

The structure of the book makes us live through, and wonder about sanity and madness, good and bad, fear and self-assurance, loneliness and companionship. There are moments reading the novel, we aren't sure about the character of young Alfred, whether he is perhaps an insane, homicidal maniac, whether he might hurt Joyce, on whom he seems so madly fixed. The final visit to Joyce seems ominous. From the next, and final scene, we know that something terrible could have happened. However, in the final pages there is another juxtaposition, that between what comes last, final and what comes next, the end and a new beginning.

Difficult but rewarding, I would only recommend this book to readers with a sincere interest in literary fiction. Despite the highly experimental approach to the novel, I did not feel the irritation I sometimes experience when reading so-called postmodern fiction. Day probably belongs to that genre, but in that case should probably be regarded as one of the more successful exponents.

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LibraryThing member abbottthomas

This was not the easiest book to read. A L Kennedy's fragmented style gives the reader a stream of consciousness jumping between Alfred, the hero's, childhood, later relations with his parents, RAF training, bombing missions, wartime love affair, post-war work in a bookshop and POW camp life, both

real and, later, re-enacted. It is sometimes difficult to keep pace with the jumps, particularly when the explanation of his capture and imprisonment is left so late in the book.

The author creates a good picture of a man far from being at peace with himself. He was already damaged by his childhood so his war experience cannot take all the blame for this. He starts to learn to take risks with relationships and his tentative integration with his bomber crew is well worked. His love affair was less convincing - perhaps in this rather than the other masculine aspects of his life does the gender of the author become more evident.

I was puzzled by the bookshop: who is Ivor, the rather solitary owner, and, more, why is he there? Alfred's interactions with him added little to the story for me.

The book seeks to be redemptive but the ending is a little neat and tidy - well, OK, with ragged edges - and, as such, left me unconvinced.

Overall, I think this is a worthwhile read, particularly for anyone interested in Bomber Command in WW2: the flying descriptions are evidently well researched.

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LibraryThing member beetrootrabbit

Although this was a Costa prize winner this book just would not keep my attention. Shame as it felt like it had real potential.

LibraryThing member PIER50

Reading the cover, and seeing the recommendations in various books sections of newspapers, this suggested an interesting, imaginative and perhaps sad book set against the background of the second world war. Day is a deeply disturbed man, not surprising considering his background and being a

tailgunner in a WW2 bomber. A disturbing, sad, uplifting and, in places odd, book. At times my concentration wondered as the book did, but ultimately it is worth reading and does make you think. The fact that the author A L Day is a young woman makes this an amazing insight

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LibraryThing member Schmerguls

I read this because it was named Cosyta Book of hte Year for 2008. It was big disappointment. The author insists on grating the reader with at least a thousand uses of the f-word, as well as having her central character an adulterer and murderer. I found the book an awful bore and was glad when I

was finished. Fiction about a bomber crew can be very exciting--see, e.g., Twelve O'Clock High--but this book was a chore to read

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LibraryThing member Niecierpek

In turns poignant and intensely funny, it’s a World War II tale with all of the war's naked cruel reality and a war romance woven in. She is great with words...

LibraryThing member otterley

A slow beginning to an intriguing book. Day is a story about love, redemption, the terrible things that people do to each other, the power of cheap music and the strength of friendship, coming through war into a hard won peace. This is not a straightforward read, but the elliptical path it takes is

one worth following as Alfie finds himself in war, loses himself in prison and eventually reconciles himself to what is left in life for him - a long way from his home and his best hopes, but sometimes making do is the best way to mend a broken spirit...

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LibraryThing member jayne_charles

This is a tough read, requiring a lot of work on the part of the reader. You can't just glide over the lines, you have to sit up and take notice. The first chapter or so was totally disorientating; without the brief synopsis on the back cover I wouldn't have had a clue what was going on. The

narrative ploughed on, though, with little explanation and it was like being dragged along by my hair.

I have to admit the writing is of a stupendously high quality, and I can see why the book won the Costa Prize. Somehow, the inner thoughts of the central character - abstract, staccato, fractured - are delivered in text form, and you gt a real sense of his 'voice' despite the whole thing being written in the second and third person. The blokey banter between the members of the crew was written with tremendous skill too. So overall, a book I admired greatly but didn't always enjoy reading.

Incidentally, the author writes a highly entertaining blog for the Guardian Online

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LibraryThing member Steve38

As many others have commented this is a sustained piece of imaginative writing. The author puts herself inside the head of the principal character. Everything is seen, smelt and heard through his senses. But it reads like an exercise in writing. A WW2 bomber pilot might be an obvious candidate for

an attempt at this sort of writing as there is so much background information available that makes the research that much more possible. Ms Kennedy deserves praise and credit but in the end it is a dry piece of writing that tells us nothing further about the times or the experiences of it.

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LibraryThing member Opinionated

The voice takes a bit of getting used to - its one of those books where you need to commit to reading reasonable chunks at a time or you won't get into the rhythm of the language or the stream of consciousness of the narrator. But when you do, its quite moving and the depiction of the close bonds

of wartime air crews, really all acting as one organsism, is the best I've read. I thought it was a remarkable illustration of why, for some, war can create a sense of belonging and purpose and togetherness that the "real world" can struggle to match. To be honest I wasn't really convinced by the "love" component, couldn't really see what the protaganist's love interest saw in him. But none the less, I was glad that somebody saw something and there was some prospect of fulifllment and belonging outside of war
Overall, really very impressed, and I'll be trying to read some more of Kennedy's work

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