Random Harvest

Rating:
Summary: Don't know the plot twist? The last page will thrill you!
Review: A book I reread over and over and still enjoy. Knowing the most important plot device ahead doesn't spoil it, but if you don't know it (and haven't seen the wonderful movie), you'll get a special delight from this great story.

Rating:
Summary: i have to re-read this at least once a year
Review: An exquisite wartime romance that bears a few resemblances to The English Patient, James Hilton's time-spinning tale is the type of book that grabs you in its first paragraph and leaves you breathless with its last sentence. Just make sure you don't see the wonderful, more straightforward Ronald Colman-Greer Garson film version first. The heartstopping plot twist at the end makes everything that goes before even more magical. Random Harvest is one of those books that you'll read and re-read for many years; I know I have, three times already.

Rating:
Summary: Random Memory
Review: Harrison, a Cambridge student (and prospective journalist) meets Charles Rainier on a train. Rainier is an MP, and his past is somewhat mysterious, in that two years of his life are "missing": he has forgotten what happened to him between sustaining wounds in the trenches in France and waking up two years later in Liverpool. Harrison becomes interested in Rainier and in his past, and tries to help Rainier recover his memory.

In one sense, "Random Harvest" is a very dated novel: it was first published in 1941 and reads very much as a period piece, the dialogue feeling very stilted in places, almost a pastiche of upper class English speech of the period. But despite that, I thought that it had a lot going for it, not least because Hilton manages to keep the plot interesting for the reader by peeling away the mystery of Rainier's past gradually.

More interesting than that however, were Rainier's views on inter-war Britain - his character reflected a seeming loss of self-confidence, a deep dissatisfaction (almost an irritation) with the Empire, disillusion with the result of the sacrifices of World War One, and exasperation with socio-economic changes. This added another dimension to the novel.

In all, an enjoyable read. I'll even forgive the howler in the first pages of the novel when the two main characters wonder how the England cricket team will do in the next Test Match, despite the fact that they are travelling through England in November! And despite the fact that England were not playing abroad......

G Rodgers

Rating:
Summary: Random Memory
Review: Harrison, a Cambridge student (and prospective journalist) meets Charles Rainier on a train. Rainier is an MP, and his past is somewhat mysterious, in that two years of his life are "missing": he has forgotten what happened to him between sustaining wounds in the trenches in France and waking up two years later in Liverpool. Harrison becomes interested in Rainier and in his past, and tries to help Rainier recover his memory.

In one sense, "Random Harvest" is a very dated novel: it was first published in 1941 and reads very much as a period piece, the dialogue feeling very stilted in places, almost a pastiche of upper class English speech of the period. But despite that, I thought that it had a lot going for it, not least because Hilton manages to keep the plot interesting for the reader by peeling away the mystery of Rainier's past gradually.

More interesting than that however, were Rainier's views on inter-war Britain - his character reflected a seeming loss of self-confidence, a deep dissatisfaction (almost an irritation) with the Empire, disillusion with the result of the sacrifices of World War One, and exasperation with socio-economic changes. This added another dimension to the novel.

In all, an enjoyable read. I'll even forgive the howler in the first pages of the novel when the two main characters wonder how the England cricket team will do in the next Test Match, despite the fact that they are travelling through England in November! And despite the fact that England were not playing abroad......

G Rodgers

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful story of loss, longing and fulfillment
Review: I had first seen the wonderfully sentimental movie, which is one of my favorites.

The book is not so sentimental. In reading the book, I was unprepared for how well-depicted would be the pain of the protagonist's psychological plight, how thought-provoking this book would be about society, and how much an individual could realistically be shown to be at a loss - no matter his external circumstances.

This is very much about someone who senses that once his life had meaning to him, and he had happily occupied a niche in the world - and can't rediscover it. The author is so wonderful in conveying this desperation.

Mr. Hilton also wonderfully conveys the highs and lows of both the well-born establishment, and the utterly displaced, of inter-war England.

And amazingly, he brilliantly evokes the wonderfully dreamy feeling of being in love. The scenes in which Smitty finds the small town, climbs up to the small lake in the hills, what he sees when he awakens, and the following several days, must be among the most moving in fiction.

I also love how the author shows the differences in personality between the earnest, sweet, easily alarmed, humble Smitty and the somewhat cynical, immensely able, practical-joking, self-deprecating Rainier - much of the difference seems engendered by the way they're treated and their places in life.

I love how subtly the author shows Mrs. Rainier's reaction to Rainier's discoveries - it's just brilliantly done. And the book's ending could not be more satisfying.

This is a more thought-provoking book than Goodbye Mr. Chips - and as much as I enjoyed that, this is a better one. I loved this as much as Hilton's So Well Remembered - which is high praise.

Rating:
Summary: THE WONDERFUL STORY/ THE STORY OF "COMPLETION"
Review: Random Harvest is my all-time favorite story. It might well be called The Wonderful Story or The Beautiful Story. Who hasn't read James Hilton's Good-buy Mr. Chips or Lost Horizon? This book, in my view, is his best work. It was this work that convinced me Hilton had to be a mystic although I don't know that. I do know that on one level, the earthy one, this is the best romantic novel I've ever read. On another level, social or historical, the work is a bringer of hope- written during WWII about WWI and ending on the eve of WWII the story speaks directly to our own uncertain post 911 era. But most importantly this is a work of spiritual completion. It can be read as the story of two people, or for Jungians in particular the coniunctio (union of opposites), the reconciling of the male and female within each of us, and in another context the "Marriage Feast of the Lamb"... This is, indeed, "The Wonderful Story."

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Summary: A BEAUTIFUL,LYRICAL,EMOTIONAL ROMANCE.
Review: This book is fantastic. First I saw the movie with Ronald Colman and Greer Garson and enjoyed it (despite its tear-jerky nature). However, I found the book a lot more substantial and thought-provoking.

Rating:
Summary: An ending to take your breath away
Review: This completes the trilogy of classic James Hilton novels (the other two being "Lost Horizon" and "Goodbye Mr. Chips") which were all made into movies during Hollywood's Golden Era. It is the lesser known of the three novels, although Random Harvest is his most complete work.

The story is a romance, a mystery, a critque on England's class structure, and a parable. Hilton uses the lost years of Charles Rainier as a methaphor for the lost years of the 1920/1930's when England failed to prepare for the next war. Told in flashbacks and bookended by World War I and World War II, the resolution is only revealed in its final sentence that will shock you and change everything that you have just read & thought you understood. You will go back and re-read the book as your perception of all the characters are altered by the surprise ending.

Two cautions: First, see the 1942 Ronald Coleman/ Greer Garson movie AFTER reading the book to see how the ending is handled.
Second, the opening few pages are set in an England and of a time that will be unfamiliar to most Americans, but if one continues on, the reader will be deeply rewarded. The ability to be surprised is a rare gift and Hilton delivers.