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Judgment Day (2003)

Judgment Day (2003)

Book Info

Rating
3.68 of 5 Votes: 3
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ISBN
0802139663 (ISBN13: 9780802139665)
Language
English
Publisher
grove press

About book Judgment Day (2003)

"Judgment Day takes us into the life of Clare Paling, who has just moved with her family to Laddenham, a seemingly drowsy village enlivened by sideshows of adultery and gossip. An avowed agnostic who has a preoccupation with the savagery of fate, Clare is nonetheless caught up in the restoration of the church, even inciting the villagers to put on a pageant that re-creates the church's dark past. With flawless precision, Lively brings the village and its inhabitants to life as an unpardonable death reminds them all that the world is a very uncertain place."~~back coverAn odd book, with odd characters. I wasn't able to "get into" Clare -- never understood why she chose to get involved with the church restoration simply to relieve her boredom. Surely there must have been other interests she could have pursued, that were more in line with her character?The book wanders along through the general anomie of said inhabitants until the final shocking & completely unexpected ending, which I won't describe here as knowing the outcome would ruin the book for future readers. Suffice it to say the ending changed the entire warp and woof of the book. Or perhaps it didn't -- perhaps that staggering ending was purposely done to offset the mundaneness of village life: a statement the author wanted to make about the quixoticness of fate.

Short novel featuring a number of interlocking characters in a small village called Laddenham. The ancient village Church stands as a character, one which is in need of repair and it is this repair which is, perhaps, an underlying metaphor. Each of the main characters and even some of the minor ones limp woundedly through their lives or, with a couple of them, they forge ahead rather like those people who run from their cars after crashes and get a litle way along on the adrenalin rush before collapsing with broken legs. It is ' events, dear boy, events' which move this wonderful story along. You encounter the careless, the thoughtless, the hopeless and the futureless and with many of them Penelope Lively has succeeded in making you care about them even though you are annoyed by them at the same time. There is humour here but brilliantly, Lively allows you to see the possible unfurling of tension and loneliness in some of the characters only to have it wrenched horribly away. The back cover of my copy spoke of ' an unpardonable death ' and this seeming spoiler actually serves to increase the tension as you read with an eye half on the future. Sadly but perhaps purposely it was the very character i longed to survive who didn't. Read this and though perhaps you may not weep you will know an anguished moment or six.

Do You like book Judgment Day (2003)?

I like Penelope Lively's books so much because of the warmth they convey and ability to draw me in. I actually read this years ago and was the first thing I downloaded on Kindle. It is an ejoyable short read which, particularly where the awkward vicar and the Waspish Mrs Paling were concerend, I found very humourous! I beleived the story to be set some time around 1980- we are given a feel for the time as well as the setting which helped me create an atmosphere for the book. The church is one of the main scenes and the 'Juedgement Day' scene of the title features a great deal. I picked up on the theme of judgement. Much of the activity of the book suggests how one person forms opinions of another be it from their circumstances, quirks or in this case, religion. This book perhaps gently insiniautes how these views we hold of others should be altered. The unexpected tragic ending ties everything together.
—Gillian

I love Penelope Lively's books, and I always find it so hard to describe why. They are generally quiet, without the bluster or bombast of so many novels, yet they are not cloying or claustrophobic. They are observational, but not overly full of description. Generally, I have to like a character in a book to like the book, but I don't feel that need with Lively's books. Certainly, there are characters I empathize with, and others that I dislike immensely, but I don't latch on to any one person.Judgment Day is very much a Lively novel, in all of those senses. Set in a small English village, it is centered around an ancient church and its neighbors, and the events that happen one spring and summer when they plan a church fundraiser. The fundraiser is to be a play based on several violent moments in the history of the village and church. Throughout the story, there is an undercurrent of tension, or possible violence, like a tiger waiting to spring, and you don't know until the end how or if it will strike. Several of the main characters ponder faith and fate and existence, as many people do, and come away changed, and yet the same, as most people do. Lives are changed forever, and not changed, as is so often the case in real life. A picture of a village, and a picture of the wider world.
—Hope

History persists and keeps playing out in people's lives, and it isn't always picturesque, although most people, like the amusingly annoying Miss Bellingham, much prefer the theme park version of it (quaint costumes, heritage buildings, maypole dancing). People are just as complicated and messy, hard, often impossible, to know, mysterious to us, yet in small moments we can see someone astonishingly clearly. And the whole thing is messy and shocking and joyous and painful and beautiful, sometimes all at the same time. Lively is a very good writer, with an eye for significant detail and patterns of meaning that feel like they arise out of the story and aren't imposed on top of it.
—Leslie

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