Understanding Anthony Powell (Understanding Contemporary British Literature)

I'm writing as a serial re-reader of the 'Dance' sequence, not at all as an expert critic.I enjoyed the book a great deal, as it dealt with aspects of Powell's work that I wouldn't normally think of. And there's more to enjoy; it's clearly written for American college students and, being about Powell, makes a valiant attempt to explain the English class system. Good luck. It's an entertaining section..The book revealed to me convolutions of meaning that had simply passed me by- for instance in the first book, 'A Question of Upbringing', when Le Bas discusses poetry with the boys who will become the main actors of the first half of the 'Dance', I'd taken the scene as a straight satirical look at them all, but it emerges that there are far deeper levels at play, involving the meanings and associations of the poems. It won't make any difference to my enjoyment of the books, but it's interesting to think that Powell may have been thinking on this level. On the other hand, I missed a discussion of the craft involved- the way in which Powell sets up some 'bookends', brackets for the entire sequence to be written over 25 years; the falling snow and the road menders' fire bucket which opens and closes the entire 'Dance' was clearly pre-planned- a quarter century later there would still be fire buckets and snow. But Widmerpool's runs in the rain, attempting to qualify for teams for which he was never chosen, was more open ended. 25 years later, might he die running for a bus in Whitehall? As it is, he dies with dreadful symmetry, 'I'm leading now!' failing to lead the cult, failing in his final bid for power. A nice piece of what had to be improvisation by Powell- he couldn't have anticipated it. His take on the '60s is astonishingly true to what I remember, the rise of the cults after the rationalism of the post-war recovery years. I was working in TV journalism then, and he gets it exactly right- including even the whiff of Northern Ireland. This 'craft' side is, it seems to me, underplayed in this case.But in general it's hard to disagree with the analysis in Birns's book except in one chapter- that dealing with 'The Military Philosophers'. In this volume, Powell for the only time in the 'Dance' deals with two 'real' characters who are almost named, and whose identity is absolutely clear. One is Alanbrooke, the CIGS, the other is General Montgomery. The visit to Montgomery's headquarters is brilliantly described, as is the character of the general himself- it's generally recognised as a superb depiction, one of the highlights of the entire 'Dance'. And the description of Alanbrooke, apparently glancing, is one of the few that makes it clear why he was chosen to lead the entire Army in war time. These episodes are simply not mentioned, but they seem to me to be very important in the analysis of Powell's writing. And, also concerning 'The Military Philosophers', there is an extensive discussion of why Powell introduces the war time massacre of Polish officers, by the Russians, at Katyn. There is a great deal of speculation about Powell's intent in raising the incident, Was he trying to raise consciousness of an incident that had been swept under the carpet? To me this seems strange; I had known about this massacre as a child; later it was always clear to me, reading the books, that Katyn was deliberately introduced, for literary reasons, during a meeting in Widmerpool's Whitehall 'lair', where at the height of his powers he could be shown to be callous and expeditious, the very characteristics which would result in the death of Peter Templer in Yugoslavia- a callousness which is otherwise only directly revealed by a wild accusation by Pamela Flitton, his wife, in 'Temporary Kings'. Birns rightly makes a great deal of the recurrences of Widmerpool in the 'Dance', and Powell's depiction of him as an 'anti-Jenkins'. It's beautifully handled by Powell in this case; I find it hard to understand why this opportunity is missed in favour of a non-craft, more ideological discussion.But other than these points, which I write from a strictly non-academic viewpoint- I just enjoy the 'Dance'- I have had a good time reading the Birns book, especially getting an 'outsider' view from across the Atlantic on this very English author.