Joanna Quinn (1)Critiques

Probably closer to a 3.75 star. I enjoyed this book and its characters. The book is broken down in 5 Acts from 1919 - 1945. My problem with the book was that each Act almost read like a whole different book. Yes the characters are the same, but each section has a very different feel, almost like you've just jumped in mid story. In some ways this was interesting. Christa, was the ring leader, imaginative and forceful. Flossie, mousy and meek, Digby like a faithful puppy. As the story progresses, we see how they change. In other ways, I wish there had been a little more development to the progression. After the first two sections, I felt the story line got thinner.

Three siblings, largely self-raised in a bohemian country house in the 30’s create an outdoor theatre. And then the war intervenes.

The first half was a little slow for me, but absolutely set the scene of freedom-filled days that contrasted so well with the excitement, duties, dangers and horrors of the war to follow.

This felt well researched with a cast of well-drawn characters, and beautifully written.

« I knew EVERYTHING when i was twelve years old, and with each year of my life, I know a little less, and there is freedom in that. You have space for a good deal more ».

A little slow at times, but so well written
The characters have such depth½

A whale of a book. Tremendous, wonderful, a pleasure to read.
It is an outstanding intricate and complete saga of a dysfunctional wealthy English family, a highly believable tale in an accurate framework of history.
Following the uncared for children with self-centred parents through to their involvement with daring escapades in WWII.
The well painted characters and relationships became alive to me, I shed a tear as one of the children perished near the end.
I was interleaving my reading with 'Between Silk and Cyanide' by Leo Marks, describing the workings of British espionage during WWII. It was pleasing to see how close to history the book was.
JQ has exciting descriptions full of sights and sounds, an amazing way with words. I had to stop and capture many descriptions on the way.
"The crisp displays of October, all its smart oranges and yellows, have been spoilt and scattered about as November rushes in, dragging winter behind it like a trial of rattling cans" p246.

Review to come, eventually if not sooner. Read in 2023.

My third attempt at a review and this time I’ll leave details of the story to others. There’s plenty will do a better job of that than me. I loved this book! The outside world stopped whenever I started to read it and it took me back to those happy times when as a kid, I’d be nestled in my hidey-hole with a special book and the cat. The Whalebone Theatre is a big family saga that grabbed me by the hand and pulled me in from the first page. Set 1919 through to 1945 mostly in Dorset England, with three exceptionally drawn main characters, Christabel, Flossy and Digby - siblings. Two share the same father, two the same mother and take a few moments to nut that one out. The story involves a dead whale, hence the title. There’s a small, home theatre which eventually becomes quite famous. A big country house where lavish parties seem to run from one to the other with doors opening and closing in the wee small hours of the night. Misplaced love is sad but love lost is sadder still. With the start of WW2 the story really picked up for me. Flossy joins the Land Army and The House is taken over by the Army for rehabilitation of the wounded. The Special Forces Agents were very real and played a vital part in the war. Involved mainly in espionage their assignments were dangerous and clandestine. Having recently read another book about the training of these agents and their covert trips into France, I was able to appreciate the extremes of danger involved for Christa and Digby. I can’t praise this book highly enough! It’s one of MY BEST EVER reads. 5+ stars!

The Whalebone Theatre - J.Quinn
Audio performance by Olivia Vinall
4.5 stars

The story begins in the years following WW1 and continues through WW2. Cristabel Seagrave is the neglected child of England’s crumbling monied aristocracy. She is the imaginative leader of the three children in her unusually blended family. It was a new perspective for a book about the ‘Lost generation’. This book explores the consequences of being the child of the lost. Cristabel’s twelve year old imagination is obsessively captivated by the carcass of a whale that washes up on the beach of her family estate. As the years go by, with only the massive bones remaining, she is inspired to organize an amateur theater group to perform within the rib cage.

Cristabel is only one of the quirky, unconventional characters who populate this book. There’s a cohort of actors, artists, poets, musicians, and various alcoholic risk takers. Cristabel and her siblings are raised erratically by adults who were emotionally damaged in the first war. Life challenges them again when they face the second war as adults. The book fragments into several storylines as WW2 scatters characters in all directions.

In some ways, this book isn’t too different from most war stories. There’s sacrifice and suffering. The difference in this book is with the cadre of characters. Cristabel and her siblings were raised with little adult affection, but the war highlights their intense emotional ties to each other. Some of the characters benefit from the changes in gender roles and the loosening of class distinctions. It was interesting to follow the different story lines as war work changed things on the home front. Cristobel and her brother/cousin head to France. With the liberation of Paris, Cristobel returns home, emotionally shattered by her experiences. The book ends with her slow revival of The Whalebone Theater. It made me think of the traveling symphony from Station Eleven.

Survival is not enough.½

I enjoyed the first half of this too long book more than the second part. Set in England on an estate near the sea, a whale washes up on shore. Chistabel, whose mother has died is growing up mainly attended by employees of the estate. When her father marries Rosalind, Florence "Flossie" is born giving her a half-sister. When her father dies, Rosalind marries the father's brother, Willowby, giving Christabel a cousin. The three children bond and use the bones from the washed up whale to provide a backdrop for plays they create. Lots of family drama ensues but the children remain very close. The second part of the novel is set during WWII when Digby, the boy, goes off to way. Soon Christabel follows as works as a spy in France.

Eventually they all come back to the much depleted estate but the whalebones remain and theater comes alive. It was a bit of a stretch at times to see how this all worked.½

I chose this book because it was written by a new author to me and it was a "debut". I enjoy adding new writers to my list in hopes they will become permanent. I have found such an author. Ms. Quinn stunned me from page 1. She reminds me of Amor Towles in her prose and insightfulness. I was told one or two quotes from the book should be included in any review. It was difficult to find only one or two. There were so many perceptive and discerning comments throughout this novel. But I shall try. "The crisp displays of October, all its smart oranges and yellows, have been spoiled and scattered about as November rushes in, dragging winter behind it like a trail of rattling cans."
It is a novel written in five acts. One is automatically drawn into the lives of these people, caring about what happens to them: crying with them, suffering loss with them, laughing out loud with them, living life with them. The novel is over five hundred pages long, but you do not notice because it is so engrossing. You do not want it to end but it has to. Read it and enjoy!

I couldn't put this one down.

Sweeping family saga covering decades and set in England and France. The Seagrave family owns a country manor in Dorsetshire. The story is focused on eldest sister Cristabel, and her half siblings, Florence and Digby.

I very much enjoyed the first half, which is focused on the siblings in their youth, the creation of the titular whalebone theatre, and the various plays they perform. The second half is completely different, and rather disappointing. It turns into a World War II espionage novel containing many scenes that stretch believability. It checks all the boxes of a contemporary story where independent women can act as they do today, without the limitations they would have faced in the 1940s.

I am not a big fan of historical fiction that strays far from what actually occurred. If you have read much non-fiction about WWII, you will spot several anachronisms and unlikely events. I loved the first half and disliked the second, so my rating is right down the middle.

This riveting, multigenerational saga has at its center a very dysfunctional wealthy English family. From the beginning pages, when a husband marries a woman he does not love in order to bear a son, to three half-siblings being raised among the family's bohemian artist proteges, to the war that rips them all apart and changes everything, this novel's characters ache for something they don't have.

At the heart of all of this is Christabel. She's the unwanted daughter who escapes her French nanny to run wild. She's the director of the plays at the makeshift theater during their bohemian summers, striding around with a toy sword, giving orders. Then she becomes the girl with the real gun and cyanide capsules undercover in occupied France, thanks to her perfect French pronunciation.

After the war takes its toll, the remaining characters gather at their large manor house to discuss the future of the family property that no longer feels like home.

This is a slow-paced, family drama where the feelings sneak up on you. These characters suffer, making the reader suffer too. It's a story about nostalgia, loss, grief and moving on.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved this story that spanned the lifetimes of three English children with an unusual family background. Beginning in 1928, when a whale washes up on the shores of the English Channel near Chilcombe manor, a little girl named Christabel is the first to discover it and as a result, she feels it belongs to her. Luckily for Christabel, the whale is not claimed by the King and eventually she turns the bones of the whale into a theatre with the help of her siblings and a few of the adults of the manor.

Every summer, they put on a production, inviting the local residents. Eventually the Whalebone Theatre becomes well-known around the area. Along with Flossie and Digby, Christabel is the driving force of the theatre productions.

As the years pass, the children grow up and the war looms on the horizon. With it comes a pause in the life of the Whalebone Theatre. Digby goes off to war, Flossie stays at Chilcombe growing a garden and Christabel joins the war effort, eventually becoming a part of the resistance movement in France.

As the war continues, Digby and Christabel find themselves working together to liberate France. The story concerning the war was unlike most I have read about. Readers do not enter the concentration camps, but mostly experience the war as English residents. Digby and Christabel enter the thick of the war, but they are working undercover.

This was such an unusual story, with many references to books, plays and music, with some difficult times and relationships interspersed throughout.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Hopf Doubleday Publishing Group for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am happy to offer my honest review.

An excellent read (audiobook). Lots of small details about each character make this rich and rewarding. I love how the world of children in an adult world is evoked, and the coming and going of various characters fills out the corners of the world just like in real life. Interesting transitions between generations as the author needs to make time pass, she does so by cataloging life events, which sounds trite but works well. I'm not the biggest fiction reader, but this was worth the effort. Also does a great job with period detail, and doesn't turn away from the gritty reality of being a spy for the Resistance in WWII.

The three Seagrave children are born and brought up in the "big house" on a Dorset country estate between the world wars. Cristabel and Flossie are aware from the beginning that just by being girls they are a disappointment. Cristabel's mother died soon after she was born and she has grown up making her own entertainment, with a young maid and other servants and finding toys hidden out of sight. Her father Jasper marries a beautiful young debutante, Rosalind, but their baby girl is apparently so unappealing she is nicknamed the Veg. Finally Digby is the longed for heir.

The children grow up making their own games and reading plays, and when Cristabel finds a whale washed up on the beach and meets a group of eccentric bohemians who become regular visitors to Chilcombe, she takes the opportunity to start putting on theatre productions. Until the war interavenes.

This debut novel brings several storylines together, and I'm not sure that this always works completely, but Cristabel's determination to make the most of the freedom that she has, as a result of an apparently quite neglectful upbringing, makes her a fascinating if rather spiky character. Her apparently more passive sister gradually also comes into her own. Digby is much loved but generally portrayed through the eyes of the other characters.

The WWII story is already very thoroughly explored in fiction, rationing and war work on the home front, and eventually a chance to take part in something more exciting in France for Cristabel. There is also much frustration and uncertainty and new people for the sisters to care about but also to worry for.

Once this got to the top of my reading pile, I did find it to be an enjoyable page turner and would certainly pick up Joanna Quinn's next novel.