As an ace fighter pilot, Daniel hadn’t expected to survive the great war. Yet in this sequel to De Bernières’ 2015 novel The Dust That Falls from Dreams, he is alive and happy and living in Ceylon. That is, until his wife Rosie insists on returning to England. Daniel rages against the unfairness of being forced to follow her or lose the children. But society “assumed unquestioningly that children belonged with their mothers. It had become as socially obvious as the flatness of the Earth had been before the Renaissance.”
Back in England, a large cast of washed-up survivors surrounds the central players. Daniel’s brother Archie is drinking himself to death. Oily Wragg lives in a shed and finds it luxurious compared to the horrors of war. Of Rosie’s sisters, Sophie is childless; Ottilie has found love; Christabel is living with the famous female artist Gaskell. In time, Daniel’s marriage breaks down and Rosie cruelly keeps him from his children. He is forced to circumvent her lies (they’re out, they’re ill, they don’t want to see you) in order to stay in touch with his own daughter.
Christabel at least recognises that Daniel is good father material. She asks him to get her pregnant, so she and Gaskell can have a family. He won’t be able to claim any children as his own but at least he’ll be allowed to visit them, which is better than nothing. Taking a break from this emotional rollercoaster, Daniel heads to Germany to work with two old friends and becomes caught up in terrible events that draw on all his natural heroism.
As always, De Bernières writes with whimsical sympathy – except when it comes to Daniel’s relationship with Rosie. The problem is that Daniel occupies the moral high ground while everyone takes potshots at his wife: family, friends, even her own daughter. Here is Daniel’s lover, Mary, on the subject: “Daniel didn’t deserve to be treated so badly. Quite apart from having made a name for himself in the Great War, he was energetic and humorous and hard-working … A fun-loving man is difficult for a woman to resist, especially when he is compassionate, and as much concerned with your pleasure as he is with his own.”
There’s a lot more of the same, and it’s puzzling. De Bernières has said he is a committed advocate for separated fathers, but I can’t help wondering: why does he use a verbal sledgehammer to make Daniel’s case, when he has written of greater tragedies in a lighter style?
• So Much Life Left Over is published by Harvill Secker. To order a copy for £12.99 (RRP £16.99) go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99.
• Helen Falconer’s latest novel is The Hawthorn Crown (Corgi).
