In the realm of hit or misses this book was a miss. Most of the books I read with Dragon I end up really liking because she has high standards and excellent taste but this one didn’t live up to its potential.
Each time I thought about the book while I was reading it it sounded great in my head but while I was actually reading it it fell flat and as the book began to wind down and I realized the author and myself were simply not on the same page it got really frustrating.
The book is a time-shuffling tale of a WW1 British couple (Ashley and Imogen) who conceive a child out of wedlock in the throes of “going off to war” passion, and their modern day heir Tristan.
Ashley is determined to do his duty by his country but equally committed to do right by his paramour of one week and a box full of letters in the form of marriage. She, on the other hand, insists that he desert the army and run away with her. She seems almost not to understand that desertion is a criminal act and that they would likely have no means of support in whatever corner of the world she thinks they can spend the rest of their lives while evading the British empire. Imogen is likeable enough she’s just stubborn and privileged to the point of stupidity.
In any case, the other half of the story is told in modern-day Europe as their great-grandson and heir seeks to prove his lineage and claim the fortune that his great-grandfather left to his great-grandmother. The trick is that at birth Ashley and Imogen’s daughter Charlotte was adopted by Imogen’s sister and her husband who raised her as their own and no legally binding records can be found to prove the private, family, war-time adoption.
All of that sounds great, right? The stuff of a great story. Here’s where it didn’t cut the mustard for me. In WW1-era Europe we spend much more of our time with Ashley and his eventual death in an Everest-climbing expedition than with Imogen, who, despite her stubbornness feels like the more interesting character and literally disappeared after the birth of the child. I was really interested in what became of her and miffed that the story slighted her.
In modern-day Europe Tristan traipses from one end of Europe to the other in his quest to prove his lineage and at the very last moment decided he just doesn’t care about the fortune and turns his nose up at claiming it after spending every last cent he has to his name tracking down his relationship to it. There’s a mysterious moment that might provide some clarity but the author literally ends the scene before we find out anything and I think I’m somehow supposed to be content with that. But I’m not. And I’m sorry, but there’s nobody that’s that unconcerned about money. There just isn’t.
So, The Steady Running of the Hour has the makings of a great story but it got derailed in the telling and was ultimately disappointing.
Next up gentle reader will be my review of Bel Canto by Anne Patchett, and that was the best book I read in 2015 (so far!).
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