The Whalebone Theatre has blown away readers all over the world. Rightly so, Quinn has written a complex novel that addresses several themes without ever straying. Most importantly, Quinn has written a novel about erring people that you could frown upon, still she manages to put into perspective all of their actions and make you love them.
To start with an example which is a small spoiler. At the start of the novel we are introduced to Jasper Seagrave and his second wife. Jasper is not a likeable person at all, he is only interested in horses and getting his new wife pregnant with a male heir. Next Quinn takes us along in his personal life and a picture of a lonely, lost young boy growing into a clumsy lonely man arises. His joy in meeting a woman who he could truly relate to, whom he could truly love reached my heart.
In all of The Whalebone Theatre no-one is what they seem at the surface. Every character has a depth that explains their way of living, their way of interacting with each other. Everyone has been influenced by their upbringing, by the expectations others have of them. Hardly anyone is allowed to be happy.
Three children stand at the centre of the novel: Cristabel, Flossie and Digby. Cristabel the eldest daughter of Jasper, Flossie his second and Digby, Jasper’s second wife Rosalind’s son with Jasper’s brother Willoughby. Three parents who have no clue as to what parenting involves, who were raised by parents who did not have a clue either. Unrealistic expectations and profound unhappiness as a result. Jasper, Rosalind and Willoughby all have their own way of escaping, leaving the children to fend for themselves.
Cristabel is the plucky one, allowed to grow up without any rules or restrictions, cared for by the servants. She is the one who has dreams and bright ideas, she is the one who comes up with the idea of starting a theatre. Flossie quietly comes along, Digby flourishes. His hopes however are squashed immediately: as a son and heir he is to go to boarding school and to follow the path of his male predecessors. Cristabel, Flossie and Digby are a unit, they belong together and are hard to separate, even living apart.
World War Two acts as a game changer: Digby is old enough to fight, Flossie can become a land girl and Cristabel can join the WAAC. The war allows them to grow into the persons that were hiding somewhere deep inside them, that would never have been allowed out in peace time. Though I did wonder whether the introduction of a war with all its cruelties was strictly necessary I do understand it allowing Quinn to elaborate on her characters in a way a peace time situation would never have had.
Though Flossie is the least impressive one at the start of the novel, she grows into her own right through the war. The little girl who never looked attractive in a nice floral dress radiating warmth and strength in her dungarees. I’ll not tell anything about the paths Cristabel and Dibgy take, that would be big spoilers. I can say however that Cristabel is the one who has the most difficulty finding her way in the world, during and after the war. She has always depended on an extremely bright imagination, reality causes her to doubt this quality in her.
Quinn supports the theme of people being allowed to follow their own paths by introducing some very lively characters. The parents of course but also Maudie, the maid who kind of brings up the three children; Myrtle and Lieselotte, the heiresses who through their eccentricity set things into motion; painter Tarak and his lovers Philly and Hilly who provide the ideal setting for a theatre made of whalebone and uncle Perry, the MI5 agent who in daily life is your typical congenial uncle, in the war turning out to be a true strategist not caring about human lives.
The novel is divided into chapters spanning a certain numbers of years. There is hardly any looking back, most of the novel runs along linearly. The structure thereby strongly supporting the lives of the characters, the circumstances they find themselves in. I suspect a less linear structure would have made the novel unnecessarily complex. Quinn is furthermore a talented writer. She writes fluently and lively, creating characters that truly come alive on the pages. I wanted to keep on reading, wanting to know whether things would turn out well for Cristabel, Flossie and Digby.
The Whalebone is a truly delightful novel, expertly written. It delivers joy and sadness, it offers you a chance to relate to a group of people who try to find their ways in life. Quinn’s characters are not perfect, they are truly human.
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