I really should read more by Paul Bailey. Whenever I do, I’m reminded what an excellent writer he is. And Old Soldiers (1980) is another tour de force from him.
It feels odd to call a novella a tour de force, but in 130 pages he manages to create a world – or perhaps several. It opens with this excellent line:
Too sick with grief for tears, Victor Harker arrived in London smiling.
Victor Harker is starting a new life without his wife, Stella. Throughout the novella, Stella floats in snapshots – she was clearly a plain-speaking, kind, lively woman. Perhaps it is easier to show a successful marriage in retrospect than on the page, but Bailey does a very impressive job, in these fleeting glances of a marriage, to show how deeply they loved and needed each other – and how alone Victor Harker now feels without her.
But Harker is not allowed to be lonely for long. Bursting into assumed friendship with him is Captain Hal Standish. He is boisterous, vulgar, and unstoppable. Harker doesn’t necessarily want to stop him. While he finds a lot about Standish overpowering, he is also passively open to whatever overtures are being made. You get the sense that he is most content in passivity.
After a funny, energetic scene, we follow Captain Hal. Or, as the narrative says, ‘The man who was sometimes known as Captain Hal’. It quickly becomes clear that this is only one of several aliases he goes by – apparently for his sheer self-entertainment.
And a curious entertainment it is, too. You might assume he masquerades as a relatively well-to-do Captain to swindle people of a higher class – but his next character is a beggar with no teeth and filthy clothing. He stumbles into a shelter, hob-nobbing with down and outs. It is clear that whatever is motivating him to adopt these different personalities, it is not avarice.
Old Soldiers follows the two of them, together and apart, and Bailey manages to hold humour and poignancy in tension expertly. There are some lines that wouldn’t be out of place in one of the more literary dirty magazines…
Sex with Augusta or Myfanwy was always a robust business; with Chloe it had gone beyond the merely lively into a state that verged on gladiatorial.
…but there are also moments, particularly with Harker, which are beautiful reflections on lost love. He is also very adept at dialogue, and much of the book is in that form. I think the humour stands out more than the poignancy in the novella over all, and Bailey has a lightness of touch to it all that means Hal’s oddities are played for curious oddness rather than psychologised. Until… well, the ending is very satisfying, I’ll say that.
I’ve read three or four Bailey novels/novellas now and they’re always masterly. And yet I seldom see his name mentioned in the blogosphere. Any recommendations for others to try?