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Indlæser... The Small Back Room (1943)af Nigel Balchin
Read the book and saw the movie (1,112) Indlæser...
Bliv medlem af LibraryThing for at finde ud af, om du vil kunne lide denne bog. Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog. Boffins working on ingenious weaponry or other special wartime projects, but most of all on battling the obstructions and office politics of the services they work for and with. Clearly based on real experience in the Britain of World War II, and as such a useful counterpoint to some of the cheery patting on back of recent Bletchley Park tales. The tone here is mainly humorous, not indignant, and so we get an early, and enjoyable, portrayal of the extent of banter, of a tongue in cheek mentality, in our technocratic work world. The energy, brisk pace, and the punctuation by drinking recall also the Patrick Hamilton novels of London life from a decade or so earlier. But from the very first sentence of this book, it’s clear that the reader will be breezily entertained: “In 1928 my foot was hurting all the time, so they took it off and gave me an aluminium one that only hurt about three-quarters of the time.” Interesting novel about a physicist who works in an apparently somewhat unofficial capacity developing weapons for the British government in World War II. It took about half the book for me to get oriented regarding all the different figures in the book and what branch of the government they belonged to, but as this also seems to be a concern of the protagonist, I think it was intentional. The book deals both with Sammy's tenuous position at work and his strained romantic relationship with a woman from his office. I found this more interesting as a document of the time period than as a novel; it felt oddly disjointed and distant, but this "back room side" of World War II is pretty fascinating. ingen anmeldelser | tilføj en anmeldelse
A true modern classic, THE SMALL BACK ROOM is a towering novel of the Second World War. Sammy Rice is a weapons scientist, one of the 'back room boys' of the Second World War. A crippling disability has left him cynical and disillusioned - he struggles with a drink problem at home, and politics and petty pride at work. Worse still, he fears he is not good enough for the woman he loves. The stakes are raised when the enemy begin to drop a new type of booby-trapped bomb, causing many casualties. Only Sammy has the know-how to diffuse it - but as he comes face to face with real danger, all his old inadequacies return to haunt him. Can he, at last, prove his worth and put his demons to rest? No library descriptions found. |
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For more about Balchin:
https://balchinfamily.uk/nigel-marlin-balchin-1908-1970