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Title: Nights at the Alexandra (A Hutchinson Novella) by William Trevor, P. Hogarth ISBN: 0-09-168460-9 Publisher: Hutchinson Pub. Date: 22 October, 1987 Format: Hardcover |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: "Fate has made me the ghost of an interlude."
Comment: I don't think any living writer quite understands human nature quite as well as William Trevor, and you really can't beat Trevor's beautiful prose. Many of his novels examine evil in human nature--Felicia's Journey, for example. "Nights at the Alexandra," however, does not dwell on evil--but on impressionable youth. This novella is the story of a young boy in Ireland during WWII. An elderly German man and his much younger English wife move to a small Irish town. The Irish residents assume that Herr and Frau Messinger must be Jews, but in a small town that doesn't like outsiders, no-one bothers to confirm this. Naturally, the Messingers are the basis for a great deal of gossip. Fifteen-year-old Harry strikes up an acquaintance with the newcomers, and it is an acquaintance that alters the rest of Harry's life.
Harry is home on a break from boarding school when Frau Messinger asks him to help her with some errands. Their unlikely acquaintance begins, and soon Frau Messinger becomes the single most important person in Harry's life. Harry lives with his dull family--two brothers, a sister, parents, and 2 grandmothers (who ignore each other but gang up on any sign of rebellion). Harry's father owns a lumberyard, and it is assumed that Harry will take his place in the family business in due time. Harry's sister, Annie, longs to work in a shop in Dublin, and she once tried to make a break for it. Harry's domineering mother turns on the guilt if any child dares even whisper that they would like to see a bit of the world beyond the lumberyard. So when Harry befriends the Messingers and visits their beautiful home at Cloverhill, naturally, he rouses the wrath of his mother. Harry is simply enchanted by Frau Messinger, and when he learns that her husband plans to bring the first cinema to town, Harry is intrigued. No-one in Harry's family or at Harry's school can understand his interest in the Messingers, and so they impute some rather unattractive motives to his fascination with the young and attractive, Frau Messinger.
I loved this book. This bitter-sweet story was beautiful and very moving. Trevor managed to show how even brief, unexpected relationships can alter or affect people, and sometimes the relationships that are the hardest to define carry the greatest impact. This is another Trevor novel I shall re-read many times--displacedhuman
Rating: 5
Summary: ANOTHER STUNNING WORK FROM WILLIAM TREVOR
Comment: NIGHTS AT THE ALEXANDRA more than makes up for its brevity in the beauty of Trevor's prose - he accomplishes more in a short book like this (99 pages) than many writers can manage in much longer works. He has an amazing ability to shine a gentle but brilliant light on his characters and their lives, giving his readers a window through which to view the story. It is as if we were present - and it is a breathtaking experience that occurs whenever I read anything by Trevor.
The story here is one of love, on multiple levels - not a traditional love story by any means, but one that illuminates the various natures of love as they appear as blessings in our lives. The story is narrated by Harry, 'a fifty-eight year old provincial' as he describes himself - never married, no children. His life is nonetheless a full one - and it is not without love. His fondest memories, of a time in his adolescence, revolve around a woman named Frau Messinger - a beautiful English woman who is married to a much older German man. They have come to live in rural Ireland during the dark days of World War II. Herr Messinger's presence in the small town where Harry lives is a subject of constant speculation and no small amount of suspicion among the town's residents. Harry's father - despite evidence to the contrary - insists that Messinger is a 'Jew man', come to Ireland to escape Hitler's unimaginable persecutions.
Harry gets to know Frau Messinger when she asks him to run small errands for her - and he quickly becomes a sort of sounding board for the woman, who begins telling him things about her life. One might suspect at this point in the story that the woman is looking for a lover - but as she speaks to Harry, it becomes clear that she dearly loves her husband and appreciates what he has given her. Their marriage may not be a conventional one - the age factor, for one thing - but they are devoted to each other. One page one, she tells the boy, 'Harry, I have the happiest marriage in the world! Please, when you think of me, remember that.' It becomes clear as the story progresses that she means every word of this.
In the process and progress of the friendship between the boy and the beautiful English woman, Harry becomes aware of the many facets of the jewel of love. His school friends see his relationship with her as one with sexual possibilities. His mother calls the woman a strumpet and forbids him to go to the Messingers' home any more - a ban he defies, drawn by the gentle love and friendship offered him there, something that he has missed sorely in his home, where emotions are things to be constricted and never voiced.
Trevor's prose flows gently - the book is a quick read, even being so short - and it is sheer delight. I could call this one of his greatest works - but it would be in crowded company, for everything I've read by this amazing writer is of the highest quality.
Rating: 5
Summary: Wonderful Nights at the Alexandra
Comment: Nights at the Alexandra may be considered by some readers to be a long short story or novella. I n either base, Trevor presents us auth a wonderful story and memorable characters. In a matter of a few pages he places his readers both geographically and time wise in both the present and at the beginning of WWII. Central to the book is the question, "Who are those people we meet early on in or lives which influenced us then and continue to influence us all of our days.
The book begins as Harry, a 58 year old, cinema owner in an Irish coastal town reflects back to his life and the time during the beginning of WWII. On the brink of adolescence, Harry was quite bored with the days he spent at his boarding school and now with his days spent in his hometown where he was forced to return when the school closed down due to the war. But life is about to change for Harry when an émigré couple move to this hometown and announce plans to open a cinema theater. Mr. Messinger is a much older man from Germany while his wife is who is both elegant and beautiful is a much younger English woman. When the couple ask Harry to work for them in the ticket booth of the cinema Harry wil have one of the greatest learning experiences from his days and nights spent with this couple specifically Mrs. Messinger. For it is this woman who ultimately will have the most profound effect on Harry as he spends his nights at the Alexandra and comes under her spell. As the war rages about all of them Harry learns about life and love from this woman and even years later thinking back on this time period in his life, Harry realizes Mrs. Messinger she still holds a very special place in his heart.
As an avid reader I have long heard about William Trevor although Nights at the Alexandra was my first experience reading any of his works. In this sparse narrative, Trevor wrote volumes about the innocence of youth, unhappiness, dislocation, memories, dreams realized and regrets we may have as we look back on our youth from a different place in time. But most of all, this book depicted how random people can shape our lives. The author not only placed me in a front row seat during this novel but left me wishing I could spend more time with these people. Now I can't wait to read more from this well-known author.
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