REVIEW: Rest and Be Thankful by Helen MacInnes
Dear Readers:
I was a huge fan of the late Helen MacInnes back in the day, and when Liz Mc2 blogged recently about Friends and Lovers, it made me think of MacInnes’ other non-espionage novel. I downloaded a sample and was instantly hooked. I hadn’t remembered nearly as much as I thought I had, nothing beyond the fact that it was set on a ranch and there was a romantic storyline.
The main characters are Sarah (Sally) Bly, a 37 year old writer of cookbooks, and Margaret Peel, a 53 year old woman of independent means, who have spent the last two decades living and traveling together (platonically). Margaret wrote a light novel when she was young and it made a lot of money for her, but she has kept this a secret from her upper-class artistic and literary friends because they look down on that kind of fiction. After nearly two decades in Europe (including doing resistance work during the war), Margaret and Sally have returned to the US, and the book opens with them driving across the country with their Hungarian driver, Jackson (real name Tisza Szénchenyi). Car trouble causes them to seek shelter on a ranch in Wyoming and they decide, on the spur of the moment, to buy a rambling ranch house and use it as a retreat for writers.
The Flying Tail ranch’s owner, Jim Brent, loves the house, but he needs money to run the ranch, so he sells it to Margaret while keeping the other buildings and acreage, and henceforth the working ranch will coexist with a literary retreat. Sally and Margaret invite half a dozen unpublished writers for the month of August, and the rest of the story is about their experiences, the interactions between the ranch and small-town Wyoming folk and the city people, and Jim and Sally’s slow-burn romance.
MacInnes writes very well, with an eye for detail and an easy conversational style. She’s a political writer, and there are a number of scenes in which different characters debate the war, communism v. liberalism, and the like. There is a city v. country thing going on as well, with the New York City folk being jaded and ignorant of what the “real” people in the rest of the country are like, but there are also some amusing stereotypes of country folk. The cowboys, for the most part, are depicted sympathetically and non-stereotypically, and the one extended scene with Native Americans is relatively nuanced, especially given when the book was written. Different characters embody different approaches to war, politics, and literature, and there is quite a bit of sharp commentary on the writing profession and the New York (and Hollywood) literary communities. Some of Margaret and Sally’s discussion about characterization could take place today:
“No one ever told me this. It really is all so—so different. Tell me, why do movies about the West always insist on bandits; and long, long bars; and women having fights in spangled skirts?” She didn’t wait for the answer, but disappeared once more into the bathroom.
“Because this is the day of the Classified Character,” Sarah said to the open door. She began to tidy the bedroom as she waited. “All heroines are slender; heroes are never bald; rich men are ruthless privateers or tolerable old fools; politicians are stupid or crooked; all children are cute; poor men are victims of other men; all Frenchwomen are chic; all Englishmen keep such stiff upper lips you can’t hear what they’re saying; all Italians are so human; all people in authority are petrified; all professors are dehydrated; all scientists are devoted to test-tubes. Do you want me to go on? I’ve a long list.”
“What was that, Sarah? The water was running, and I couldn’t hear you, I’m sorry.” Mrs. Peel returned shivering from the bathroom, and began dressing with lightning speed. “I suppose they would have considered it a sign of weakness if I had lit a fire? Well, this is one morning when I won’t take very long to get ready.”
Her voice became somewhat muffled as she struggled with a sweater. “You know, Sarah, most of the books we read abroad about America weren’t of much help to us. It wasn’t our fault entirely that we knew so little about our own country as it is today.”
The romance is understated, probably to a fault for some genre romance readers, but I enjoyed it a lot. There is one negatively-stereotyped female character (along with some dated language about psychological issues) and there is one stereotypical Communist-sympathizing character, but I didn’t find them to distract from the overall strength of the book. There is a bit of a love triangle and a secondary romantic storyline, but the women characters are drawn with sympathy and aside from the two characters I’ve mentioned, most of the others are thoughtfully portrayed and a couple of them surprised me in the way they developed.
I did wonder at one point whether MacInnes was sympathetic to the House Un-American Activities Committee’s work, but the attitudes fit the characters and the time. In the end MacInnes is good about showing the benefits of city life, not just the bad points, although she clearly tilts the deck toward big-sky-America authenticity. This book was published in 1949, and everyone is still feeling the aftereffects of the war, both psychologically and in practical ways.
If you like Mary Stewart, you’ll probably like this novel, although there’s no suspense to speak of. But the writing and the characterization are similar and of similarly high quality. I’m very happy to see MacInnes’ backlist being digitized and look forward to rereading Friends and Lovers as well as some of my other favorites. Grade: B+
~ Sunita
It’s a good thing I’m feeling in a retro mood lately as I need to give MacInnes another try.
Great review. I need to get to this one sooner rather than later :).
Sunita
Thanks for the stroll down memory lane. I really do need to re-read this one, as it had fallen off my radar. I think I’ve only read it twice–once as a teen (and I was bored to tears–I wanted her suspense and espionage!) and once about ten years after that (when I quite enjoyed it-surprise!).
Off to track down a digital copy. (I’d borrow my sister’s pb copy if it weren’t for the fact that she and the book are in Texas.)
Thanks for the reminder of a book I truly enjoyed years ago!
I know I read all of MacInnes’s books, but I’m having a hard time remembering this one. I probably need to do a massive reread of her books sometime when I have a block of time.
My favorite was/is While Still We Live. It was written in 1944, and it’s a very bittersweet read with subsequent knowledge of what happened in Poland both during and after the war.
I have such fond memories of this book, even though when I first read it I had picked it up expecting one of her suspense novels. It’s definitely time for a reread.
As a side note, it makes me so happy that some of these OOP books are becoming available digitally. I’ve had myself a mini-glom of Dorothy Eden recently, and I think it’s time for a Helen MacInnes re-read, too.
@Jayne: I hope you like it! It is definitely retro. I thought MacInnes did a great job depicting Wyoming (from the bit I know about it) and the ranch is very much a working ranch.
@Sirius: I hope you will, I’m interested in your take on it. As I said in the review, there are plenty of political views on air in both the dialogue and the narrative, and I had to stop and think about that. Authors today are so warned away from those kinds of depictions that even though I remembered that about MacInnes, it came as a bit of a surprise.
@Barb in Maryland and @Pat: : You’re welcome! I was a little nervous about whether it would hold up to a reread in the 21stC, but it really did.
@Susan: Oh, I love that book too, next to Friends and Lovers it’s probably my favorite. I bought the digital version and plan to reread it again this year.
@Aoife: Yes, I love being able to curl up with the ereader and immerse myself, especially because even when I have print copies, they tend to be old and crackly. I could use up 90 percent of my reading time just reading old favorites.