The Care and Management of Lies: A Novel of the Great War

Summary (from the publisher): The New York Times bestselling author of the Maisie Dobbs series turns her prodigious talents to this World War I standalone novel, a lyrical drama of love struggling to survive in a damaged, fractured world.

By July 1914, the ties between Kezia Marchant and Thea Brissenden, friends since girlhood, have become strained—by Thea’s passionate embrace of women’s suffrage, and by the imminent marriage of Kezia to Thea’s brother, Tom, who runs the family farm. When Kezia and Tom wed just a month before war is declared between Britain and Germany, Thea’s gift to Kezia is a book on household management—a veiled criticism of the bride’s prosaic life to come. Yet when Tom enlists to fight for his country and Thea is drawn reluctantly onto the battlefield, the farm becomes Kezia’s responsibility. Each must find a way to endure the ensuing cataclysm and turmoil.

As Tom marches to the front lines, and Kezia battles to keep her ordered life from unraveling, they hide their despair in letters and cards filled with stories woven to bring comfort. Even Tom’s fellow soldiers in the trenches enter and find solace in the dream world of Kezia’s mouth-watering, albeit imaginary meals. But will well-intended lies and self-deception be of use when they come face to face with the enemy?

Published to coincide with the centennial of the Great War, The Care and Management of Lies paints a poignant picture of love and friendship strained by the pain of separation and the brutal chaos of battle. Ultimately, it raises profound questions about conflict, belief, and love that echo in our own time.

Review: I received an uncorrected proof copy of this book from HarperCollins.

The Care and Management of Lies is a novel about friends Kezia and Thea whose friendship begins to alter when Kezia marries Thea's brother Tom and becomes a farmer's wife at the same time that Thea is increasingly sucked into women's suffrage. The outbreak of war irrevocably changes all of their lives, as Tom and Thea both join the war effort and Kezia is left at home on their family farm, more farmer than farmer's wife now. Ultimately, this novel is about the decimation of war, the tenacity of love in a changing climate, and the unpredictable quality of life.

I enjoyed the intentional and at times lyrical quality of Winspear's writing. For example, "he feared his son - a son yet to be born to a woman yet to be met - might be a fierce man of purpose who forever moved at a brisk clip, in response to a father who preferred to stroll, and ideally to sit by the lake and work with verse rather than stocks and shares or trusts and investments. So Hawkes tried to balance desire and responsibility, and was generally considered to be a good man" (41). Winspear seems adept at cutting to the heart of a relationship and using words to create a snapshot of a character in a way that truly illuminates the heart of them for the reader.

The most interesting element of the novel is the theme of cooking and food as a representation of both Kezia's love for Tom and Thea, but also as a symbol of hope, to bide the time until the war ended and they could return home. "It was if Kezia had poured her heart into the cake, so that when Thea took a bite, which she did, later, with a cup of tea, she felt the old warmth of friendship return. She could taste companionship itself, and she longed for her beloved Kezzie to be there, in the room with her, crumbling the cake and counting out walnuts" (123). Kezia describes the meals she makes for Tom in letters she writes to him while he's away at war. Tom's fellow soldiers even join in on the game, asking Tom to read aloud the descriptions of the meals Kezia fixes Tom, even in his absence; "'Read that letter from your missus and tell us what she's cooked for you this time'" (200). Kezia fixes "food cooked not from duty, but from the heart" (199).

I hated that this book ended the way it did, but I recognize that it's probably realistic for WWI. I do wonder what happened to Kezia after the conclusion of the novel. Did she stay on the farm? Did she return to teaching fulltime?

My only true complaint was the evil villain character that was Knowles. Tom seems to be well liked and loved by all, but is randomly chosen by Knowles to be bullied and harassed. It didn't make sense to me that a fellow soldier would single out one of his own men to treat in such a way. "Knowles knew there was more than one way to skin a cat, and that being so, he would have his pound of flesh" (294). He seems almost inhumanely vicious and cruel, and I had a hard time accepting his character or the rationale behind his hatred of Tom.

Stars: 4