This is a book about understanding humanizing the world's monsters rather than vilifying them and shining light on the group mentality of humanity. It drips with social and political commentary while miraculously managing to avoid feeling judgmental, or preachy. It's a story that serves as both a love letter to all things English as well as a cautionary tale. "The Summer Isles," is an alternate history that somehow manages to feel faithful to reality. This novel is so many things, it's almost hard to know where to begin. And I am delighted that I read it in both versions. I am impressed by this book on so many levels. MacLeod, and I applaud vigorously the way in which he presented the closeted life. No state this repressive would not know this important and dangerous secret, and act more effectively to neutralize it.provide him with a beard, give him a steady stream of men, bob's your uncle!īut all of that aside, I can't imagine how this idea occurred to the straight Mr. They involve the Francis Eveleigh/John Arthur transition, and the subsequent co-opting of Griffin with a golden chain and muzzle.why, suddenly, do the PTB opt to alienate him? Why not simply kill him?Īnd Griffin himself, opting for a life of anonymous sex, can't possibly have imagined that he was getting away with it. The pleasure of reading the book is close to unmarred, and my quibbles are just that.quibbles. Almost, only a hair away from, excellent. The 1998 novella of the same name won Hugo and Sidewise awards for a very good reason. And he plans to use his dangerous knowledge.John Arthur used to bottom for me!.to ruin the horrible plans and change the unthinkable future of his England. He even doesn't care who, now that he's dying, knows he's gay. His eyes are open to the horror of the state he is complicit with. The trouble the Powers That Be face is, Griffin doesn't care any more. Griffin, now elderly and also terminally ill, is required to play a part in the party piece planned for the masses. The anniversary of John Arthur's rise is coming up. His younger love, his boy-man, the other half of his soul, is Francis, lost at nineteen in 1916 Francis reincarnated himself as John Arthur, a Fascist thug, and has publicly acknowledged Griffin's role in his life as "inspiring" him. He knows he's a second-rater, he knows that his tutorship at Oxford is a joke because he's no brainiac or original thinker, and he knows that, after the defeat of England in the Great War, he's lost his one true love to death. Griffin Brooke fails to heed the social conventions of his fascist state, England, first by being a homosexual, and second by failing to stop asking questions when it's obvious to a complete fool that it's only going to get him in trouble to keep going. All the mod cons in every home! All the freedoms any one man can handle responsibly! Where did the Jews go? The Book Report: England in 1940.shiny happy people, none the worse for wear after their crushing 1916 defeat at the hands of the Hun. Rating: As close to five full stars as makes no difference Thinking back on a life lived in shadow-and on his one great love affair with a young soldier during the height of the Great War-Griffin knows that revealing a secret he has guarded for decades could have devastating consequences for Britain, the world, and especially for the fascist tyrant Arthur, who cites his former teacher as a mentor and major influence. along with the nation’s Jews.īut in the twilight of his years, elevated to the role of tutor in an Oxford college, Griffin is getting anxious. With homosexuality decreed a serious crime against the state by the dictator who was once his most avid student, Griffin has remained silent while England’s gay population has mysteriously dwindled. Now, in 1940, England has resurrected itself-but at a terrible cost. First came the financial collapse and crippling inflation, then the fascist uprising in the thirties that brought John Arthur to power. A closeted gay teacher, Griffin Brooke has witnessed the monumental changes his nation has undergone since being crushed by Germany’s superior fighting forces twenty-two years earlier. Winner of the World Fantasy Award and the Sidewise Award for Alternate History: A pastel-hued yet chilling alternate vision of England, The Summer Isles views the nightmare that the country has become since Germany’s victory in the Great War, through the eyes of a man whose life lies close to the heart of history
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