Olivia Manning's Balkan trilogy

[kcs_hiker]

wow

I thought these looked really good, and maybe they are (I'm nearing completion of the first book)

but I'm not really getting into the characters of Harriet and Guy Pringle

Harriet's ok, but Guy is coming off as a bit of an ass

and Yakimov?? I just want to punch him in the nose

[iansales]

Guy is a bit of an ass, but his heart's in the right place. In fact, all things considered, for the time and place, he's surprisingly sympathetic.

Incidentally, the BBC did an excellent adaptation of the books, starring Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh. It's available on DVd. Definitely worth watching.

[Mary Hoffman]

I agree about the TV version (and about Yakimov). And when you finish you can read the Levant trilogy which takes up where the balkan one leaves off.

Mary

[kcs_hiker]

Ok I've finished the first book... The Great Fortune

and it was ok. I'll keep reading because it has potential. But if I was Harriet, Guy would be out on his ass. But still, I get the whole 'escape from reality' theme that was going on throughout Europe at the time. A look at a map of WWII Europe shows why Rumanians were more nervous about Russia than Germany.