The Go-Between

Now that I've finally finished Stephen Fry's first autobiography (which is much duller and more factual than his second, which I read before this one, which I know is the wrong way around), I've started in L.P. Hartley's The Go-Between. This is one of those novels which I suddenly discovered, while I was doing research for my reading guide on Atonement, and simply had to read. So I ordered it and it sat on my shelf for a while, until Stephen Fry made a reference to the famous first line, "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there", and then I knew it had to be the next book I would ever read.
So I started, read the famous first line (which really is very good), got through the somewhat confusing prologue, and into the story, which is set in 1900. And I read and I read. It's written in the first person, which generally annoys me, but here it seems to work quite well, as the main character is telling us what happened in 1900, speaking from 1953. So there actually is a point to the first person narration. Also, it's in the past, which is so much better than present tense (which is just completely unrealistic).
And I read and read and read. After a while, I saw that I was on page 50. Now it's been a long time since I actually read 50 pages in one go. More importantly, it's been a long time since I read 50 page in one go from an author I have never read before. Wait a minute, I thought, why am I reading this book as if I've known the author, the writing style, the subject, for years?
Now I realise that for many people this may not be very special, but it usually takes me at least a hundred pages, but sometimes several books, before I get to grips with an author's style, sentence structure, word choice, use of metaphor, his or her voice. But here, it felt like someone I'd known for years was telling me this story. Strange, I thought. I knew the subject matter would be familiar, as I mentioned Ian McEwan used similar events in his novel Atonement, and I'd just read Stephen Fry's account of life at a boarding school, so the whole perspective of a school boy in 1900 was not that unfamiliar. But his voice? Surely every author has a unique voice?
Then I realised why it seems so familiar; it is Ian McEwan's voice, mixed with Jane Austen's social criticism.
Now although I said it takes a while to get used to someone's writing voice, that does not mean that I'm any good at actually describing such a voice. However, I do think the above comes close; the long, flowing sentences of McEwan, always filled with some kind of undertone that shifts the perspective, always saying more than the characters themselves realise, combined with Austen's hidden, sarcastic critique of the social world, in this case, the world of boarding schools and the (post)Victorian British upper class. In a sense, it's the best of both worlds, really.
It is a shame that I already know what the outcome will be, given the outcome in McEwan's novel. I'm still happy I read Atonement (and all of his other novels) first though, because his writing style is my favourite, and if L.P. Hartley can talk to me in the same way, that means I will be pulled in by his story, that he will tell me everything in a way that will be pleasant and relaxing and dreamlike, without being distracted. Yes, with the sun shining, most of my work finally behind me and about a week before the next huge pile comes up, I will spend some great days in his fictional world.
So I would recommend everyone to read The Go-Between. But read Atonement first.