0456 | ADMT VI: The Kindly Ones | Anthony Powell

Ah…now here’s a volume that can completely stand alone and is, I feel, by far the best so far in Powell’s 12-volume epic A Dance to the Music of Time.

The novel flashes back to Nick’s childhood and memories of the build-up to the First World War. It then moves back to the period just before the Second World War and I don’t think I’ve ever read anything where these two periods are juxtaposed like this. I found the characters introduced here, primarily from Nick’s younger days, to be very memorable both in themselves and also for what they get up to.

But there’s plenty of action among Nick’s adult set too though as they prepare for what looks like the inevitable European conflict. There are a couple of notable deaths and on the whole there’s a better balance between conversation and events than in the previous volumes.

However, there’s no change in the style. Powell still writes with great insight into the human condition and his genius continues with the further development of his vast array of characters. Although I’m only halfway through the novel, I already have a feeling I’m going to miss quite a few of these come December when I plan to finish off the twelfth episode.

OPENING LINE	Albert, fleshy, sallow, blue chinned, breathing hard, sweating a little, fitted an iron bar into sockets on either side of the wooden shutters he had just closed across the final window of the stable block.
QUOTES	“Is it better to love somebody and not have them, or have somebody and not love them?” “Love means such different things to different people.”
CLOSING LINE	This might reveal the ending. If you want to see the quote, click show Another stage of life was passed, just as finally, just as irrevocably, as on that day when childhood had come so abruptly to an end at Stonehurst.
PROGRESS
RATING	No individual ratings for each book in the 12-volume A Dance to the Music of Time. Instead, I’ll rate the entire novel when I’ve finished it.