A Change of Climate

by Hilary Mantel

Book Overview

Ralph and Anna Eldred are an exemplary couple, devoting themselves to doing good. Thirty years ago as missionaries in Africa, the worst that could happen did. Shattered by their encounter with... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312422881
• ISBN13: 9780312422882
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.77 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Jane Austen updated

"A Change of Climate" begins like a Jane Austen comedy of manners: close observation of the social rituals which enable people to not speak the through. Even some of the characters (Ralph's and Anna's parents, for example) seem taken from a 19th century novelistic description of religious fanatics. It is not long, however, before th novel leaves Austen in the dust--and blood. I found the novel to be intellectually stimulating--is it possible to be good?--and profoundly disturbing. I think the novel is perfect for bookclubs. I am looking forward to reading "The Giant O'Brien" and "An Experiment in Love."

Buried Secrets, Fine Writing, Brave and Complex Theme

A lot of American readers may be put off by the rather dryly literate writing style of this British writer, but I would urge them to stick it out for a deep and true read, with an ending that is uplifting, but as painful and complex as life itself. As one who grew up with the benefit of an idealistic liberal education and travelled the world widely and deeply, and like the protoganists of this book found that the almost diefied third world races are no less free of the capacity to do evil than white westerners, this novel had a brave ring of truth. In fact, it is so against the grain that I'm surprised it wasn't condemned by the liberal elites who write most of the book reviews. A different view of the missionary experience, as well as Mantel's classical prose and subtly unfolding plot make an interesting antidote to the simplistically politically correct and gimmickally narrated bestseller, Barbara Kinsolver's "The Poisonwood Bible." This is one of the few books I've read in recent years that had something new and original to say.

A great book!

A Change of Climate is a wonderful book. Hilary Mantel examines issues such as love, faith, and fidelity through the lives of Ralph and Anna Eldred. I truly enjoyed reading this book.

A Change of Climate evokes a climate for change.

When asked, rhetorically, by his sister, "Whatever happened to the dinosaurs?", Ralph, the main character responds, "Their habitat altered...A change of climate." In his rebellion against his parents, their closed, religiously fundamentalist point of view, and his father's financial blackmailing regarding his career choices, Ralph intentionally changes his physical habitat and his climate by escaping to South Africa with his bride. Working as a lay person at a mission and vigorously opposing apartheid, Ralph and Anna eventually are imprisoned, then banished to Bechuanaland, now Botswana. It is here that the savagery which creates a permanent and terrible climate in their marriage occurs, a savagery not limited to one race as Ralph and Anna had perceived in South Africa. As the story bounces from the present in England back twenty years to Africa, the reader lives through the vivid and terrible African experiences and simultaneously sees how they have permeated the lives of these good, but often naïve, people. Both Ralph and Anna have rejected the traditional religion of their parents in favor of doing good deeds in their family lives and through a social service trust. But as Ralph's uncle James points out, "There is nothing so appallingly hard...as the business of being human." While the reader cheers as James grows and eventually embraces life, s/he also fears for Anna, who remains emotionally closed, despite her good deeds, fearful that she "should lose everything, one of these days." As the events resolve themselves and the "competition in goodness" comes to an end, we see real humans trying to put aside the petrified past and to change the climate of their lives, and we will, perhaps, evaluate our own lives: How human are we? Or are we dinosaurs?