Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseases (This Time of Dying - Reina James)

Member Name: dee778

Product:	This Time of Dying - Reina James
Date:	22/09/09 (59 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great historical background set against a touching love story

Disadvantages: Lots of body fluids and bloated corpses

'This Time of Dying' is a debut novel from the daughter of the famous comic actor Sid James. The story of the 1918 flu pandemic (commonly referred to as the Spanish Flu) could have been a dry, documentary style read, but Regina James has managed to give the novel a very human feel, combining many years of fastidious research with the ability to create a story of love and compassion that most readers will be able to relate to. Now 60, she began researching 'This Time of Dying' in 2001, taking her inspiration from the deaths of both of her maternal grandparents, who died in the epidemic within a few days of each other in 1918.

The 1918 pandemic is not spoken about much today, even in these times where flu scares are hyped up by the media. It lasted from March 1918 to June 1920, spreading to nearly every part of the world and killing anywhere from 50 to 100 million people worldwide. Unlike many other diseases, this flu ravaged the strong immune systems of young adults, whilst leaving children and the elderly untouched. Regina James writes, not just about the realism of life during a disastrous flu epidemic, but also about the social constraints of the time that very rigidly disapproved of inter-class relationships. Deprivations and losses of war are interwoven into the story, providing a fascinating background without taking over the story. In addition, James describes in enormous detail the day to day life of a 1920s undertaker. This, together with the graphic descriptions of sickness and dying, is not for the fainthearted!

The story only covers a period of three weeks, at the height of the pandemic. Two widowed sisters live together in a rather grim London house; Allen is a teacher who acts as carer and support to her sister Lily, a woman who has become obsessed with her own status as a dependant invalid, pushing Allen to the limits of her endurance. Nearby lives Henry - a quiet bachelor who has devoted his life to carrying on the family business of undertaking, and who is completely dominated by his bossy and prejudiced sisters. Against all odds, Allen and Henry begin a tentative relationship. This relationship is disapproved of by almost everybody, as Henry the tradesman is far beneath the educated Allen in social status.

The background is a sudden rise in the death toll, making Henry's task even more difficult, closing Allen's school, and suddenly tipping the whole of their community into an emergency that nobody could have imagined. Lilly reacts to the situation by becoming more and more paranoid and demanding, suspecting her maid Ada of being a German spy, and making Allen's life so difficult that she begins to wish for a life without Lilly - to imagine Lilly herself sucumbing to the terrible virus. Will Lilly survive? Will Allen and Henry be able to defy convention and make their relationship public?

The snapshot of a community in crisis is absolutely riveting. The research that Regina James has carried out brings to life the austere routines of a London community in the middle of the Great War, and the reality of the work of the undertaker in preparing and burying huge number of dead. The details described are trivial and mundane - streets sprayed with chemicals to prevent disease, everyday folk wearing masks- but they make the situation very real. The great fear of the unknown is paramount - is this the end of civilisation? Will the dying ever come to an end? How does anybody know, and how do you prevent yourself from descending into blind panic? Death pervades everything - from bullets, from viruses, from poverty. Bloated corpses seem to be around every corner, in every silent bedroom - coming to terms with death is something that everybody has to learn.
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"If every one of the newly bereaved were to hold a lantern to the sky, the man in the moon would think the world to be on fire."
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This is a love story, but is also much, much more - it is an insight into social structures and everyday life 100 years ago. It is a story about courage and it is also the story of a middle aged people accepting that they still have a life to live, looking at the change going on around them and starting to form the basis of post war society. The protagonists are decent, restrained and middle aged people - the story is not one of young love, lust and drama - but nevertheless it is still an intriguing story which makes the readers' emotions run high, getting an insight into the characters' secret hopes and fears, and riling against injustice and prejudice, desperately hoping for a happy outcome.

Published by Portabello Books, 2006
296 pages
ISBN 9781846270468
Currently available from Amazon for £5.99

Summary: A really interesting read