Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 22, 1995 TAG: 9510230168
SECTION: BOOK PAGE: F5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: REVIEWED BY LYNN ECKMAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
\ Already on the New York Times best-seller list, "Coming Home" will make fans of Rosamunde Pilcher exceedingly happy. A blockbuster of 700-plus pages, it tells a timeless story of love, separation, war and redemption (for some) during the decade 1935-45. Pilcher recreates that catastrophic period when England seemed on the verge of extinction by showing how individuals were affected and how their "blood, sweat, toil and tears" saved their beloved land.
Because she was born and lived for 10 years in Colombo, Ceylon, Judith Dunbar has never seen Cornwall until she accompanies her mother there to await the birth of her sister. She quickly adapts to her classmates and the people in town, but has to leave them to attend boarding school when Molly and Jess return to Ceylon four years later. It is at St. Ursula that Dunbar makes friends with Loveday (an unlikely name for an aristocrat) and with her family, wonderfully kind and eccentric, who accept her as one of their own. Then, of course, the war explodes, changing the world as it had been.
Pilcher blends the private and public events into a page-turning narrative. Her language is so British that it is sometimes incomprehensible for Americans, but charming nonetheless.
Having earned fame and fortune with "The Shell Seekers," Pilcher will never lack for readers. Half the women I know have already bought "Coming Home," despite its whopping price. She has the ability, clearly evidenced in this novel about growing up, to make the past come alive. All of us old enough will remember the black-out curtains, rationing, the scarcities, the gas masks issued to everyone in England and the pain she writes about.
The saga of Dunbar and her friends and relatives will delight and entertain anyone strong enough to lift it.
\ Lynn Eckman recently retired from Roanoke College.
by CNB