Deceits of Time

by Isabel Colegate

Book Overview

This novel underlines the theme of loyalty, to one's class, to one's country, to one's ideals and to the truth. Catherine Hillary is commissioned to write the biography of a dead politician and in the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670824003
• ISBN13: 9780670824007
• Release Date: November 1988
• Publisher: Viking
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.

Customer Reviews

"Most people are wrong about most things, most of the time."

With her usual precision, Colegate here focuses on "deceits of time," those deliberate little falsehoods that all of us, over time, create and eventually accept as truth because they allow us to smooth over unpleasant events in our lives and assuage any guilt we may have about them. In creating personal deceits, we adjust our pasts--our personal histories--so that they are more palatable and easier to cope with. Ultimately, most of us try to convince others to accept these little falsehoods as the truth. Colegate, a writer of the utmost exactitude, wants the whole truth laid bare, and in this remarkable novel she requires each of her characters to face reality in order to come to new understandings. Catherine Hillery, a widow in her fifties, is hired by a solicitor for the Campion family to write the definitive biography of Neil Campion, a young Member of Parliament, a World War II pilot, and a man with an idealistic vision of what society could become. Neil died in 1941 in a car crash on his way north toward Scotland, his reasons for that trip unknown, and Catherine is not sure why she, rather than someone more famous, has been chosen to write his biography. Determined to find out the truth about her subject and not merely reflect what the family wants her to say, she intends to get all the facts. As we come to understand Neil's family--his brother and sister, his wife, and his grandson--we also become acquainted with Catherine, her two sons, and their wives. All, including Catherine, are hiding from some truth. As is characteristic of Colegate, this novel is a marvel of compression, with individual scenes casting light on Neil Campion, one or more of his relatives, and Catherine, all at the same time. Colegate's sparkling dialogue conveys attitude, class, prejudices, and personality, while also revealing plot and the deceits each character insists on maintaining. Parallels among characters and between the Campion family and Catherine expand the scope and give added power to the message, and the irony which occurs at the end is both darkly humorous and memorable. Colegate is a powerful writer, sadly neglected, and this novel deserves a wide audience. Mary Whipple