Mr. Mac and Me

October 20, 2014
Freud (Hideous Kinky) adds her voice to the chorus marking the centenary of WWI with this novel inspired by an incident in the life of Glasgow architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. It’s 1914 when Thomas Maggs, a 12-year-old boy growing up in a small fishing village in Suffolk, befriends Mr. Mac, a newcomer, and his artist wife, Margaret. At first, Mr. Mac and his odd ways, such as painting the indigenous flowers, make him a prime source of speculation to the locals, who soon have other things on their minds as war is declared. Village boys go off to fight, soldiers are billeted in the village, and German zeppelins fly overhead on the way to bomb London. Because of German writing found in his letters, Mr. Mac is accused of being an enemy spy. But Thomas finds that the truth is quite different. The war informs every aspect of life in the fishing village, despite its distance from the battlefield, and Freud does an excellent job of describing its circadian rhythms with the incisive depth of a John Cowper Powys. But when it comes to drama, her novel is a little on the anemic side, as there isn’t much of a mystery behind Mr. Mac’s letter writing. In the end, what this novel does best is introduce the reader to the life of an unsung hero of architecture.

Starred review from October 1, 2014
For a teenage boy living on the coast of England in 1914, change is everywhere. Freud's (Lucky Break, 2011, etc.) evocative new novel intermingles the dawning consciousness of an imaginative, creative child, who meets a real artist, with the irreversible alteration brought to a small community by the start of World War I.The Suffolk coastal landscape-its history, weather, natural fabric and ever shifting aspects-suffuses Freud's delicately detailed chronicle of village life, in which sailing, fishing, shipwrecks and beachcombing are the stuff of local existence. Tom Maggs, 13 and born with a twisted foot, knows the terrain like the back of his hand and roams it freely. Tom has a taste for drawing, which is how he first encounters the dark figure of Mac, aka Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the noted Scottish architect and painter who, with his wife, also a renowned artist, is living locally, recuperating from illness after a career dive. Tom's father, an alcoholic, terrorizes his family while the Mackintoshes' loving companionship offers a different version of marriage. The couple also encourages Tom's sketching, and he becomes their mail boy, delivering their letters to the post office, after steaming them open to read the contents. Once war begins, soldiers constantly come and go, the town and beaches are fortified against invasion, and Zeppelins fly overhead, dropping bombs. Tom and those around him are increasingly affected by the new laws, the distant fighting, and the national mood of fear and suspicion. When crises arrive, they propel the boy forward into an unimaginable future in which he will always cherish the love and artistic devotion he witnessed during that shattering year. A touching coming-of-age story, powerfully but gracefully infused with a spirit of place, which also pays tribute to a revered artist.

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October 1, 2014

On the eve of World War I, in poor health and financially strapped, architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his artist wife, Margaret, wash up in a seaside English village. The working-class townspeople regard them with curiosity and suspicion--they are foreigners (from Scotland!), artists (Bohemians!), have German books on their shelves (art catalogs), and roam the countryside with binoculars (the better to view their floral subjects). However, to young Thomas Maggs, son of the local innkeeper, they are exotic and enchanting. In their tidy cottage, he finds a welcome refuge from his schoolwork, his endless round of chores, and his angry, drunken father. Tom and his new friends observe the changing landscape when war breaks out as zeppelins fly overhead, soldiers are billeted in town, and local boys join up and die. VERDICT Along with popular fictional biographies such as Loving Frank, The Paris Wife, and Z, this period novel from Freud (Hideous Kinky; Lucky Break) will surely captivate. It may also inspire a visit to Glasgow for tea and scones in the Willow Tearooms, a Mackintosh architectural gem. Warmly recommended.--Barbara Love, formerly with Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont.

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