The Report

May 17, 2010
Kane (Bending Heaven) explores the fallout from a catastrophe that occurred in war-weary 1943 London to mixed results; the historical material and characters are wonderful, but the plot is deeply contrived. The newly built Bethnal Green tube station was serving as an air-raid shelter when 173 people suffocated to death in a mystifying pile-up in a stairwell. As rumors swell about possible causes, magistrate Laurence Dunne is assigned to investigate. Kane skillfully reimagines the empathetic Dunne as he interprets the confessions and accusations of a community crushed by loss and guilt. In a linked narrative set in 1973, Paul, who was orphaned in the tragedy, tries to persuade Dunne to be interviewed as part of a documentary he's directing. Meticulous historical detail and vivid descriptions of hunkered-down and rationed East Enders add a marvelous texture, but Kane runs into trouble by trying to establish that the tangle of noble and selfish intentions that contributed to the calamity can't be unknotted, while simultaneously tugging on a stubborn thread that will, for the sake of plot, prove the opposite.

July 15, 2010

Kane reimagines a real-life civilian tragedy during World War II, when 173 people, fleeing an apparent air raid, were crushed to death in a stairwell in a newly built Tube station in London.

The Bethnal Green tragedy of March 3, 1943, is all the more terrible and poignant because no bombs fell over London that evening. And bizarrely, every death was by asphyxiation; only one victim—a survivor—suffered a broken bone. Kane, author of the story collection Bending Heaven (2002), moves deftly among perspectives on the catastrophe: We eavesdrop on war-battered townsfolk, the tardy policeman, the overburdened priest, the devastated shelter-chief who feels responsible. Kane's command of period detail is marvelous. She focuses on magistrate Laurence Dunne, appointed to conduct an investigation and produce a report that will be both thorough and innocuous, that will explore and explain the tragedy while also assuaging fears and aiding "morale...the altar on which reason was daily sacrificed." Finding someone to blame—whether it's Jewish refugees, a war-weary mother chasing two young daughters, neighborhood boys with firecrackers, the government or malfeasant officials—is a psychological necessity, and everyone is looking for someone on whom to pin responsibility. Kane adroitly weaves together various theories and gives a sense of the grim succor that assigning blame can provide grief-stricken citizens. Unfortunately, the book is hampered by a contrived framework—30 years later, an orphan of the Bethnal Green tragedy interviews Dunne for a documentary—that undermines the eloquent take on moral intricacy and ambiguity.

Some plot problems aside, a deft, vivid first novel.

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September 1, 2010

Kane's first novel (after the short story collection Bending Heaven) revolves around the real-life Bethnal Green tube station disaster that occurred in London during World War II and claimed the lives of 173 people--the largest civilian accident of the war in Britain on a night when no bombs were dropped on the city. Trying to make sense of how so many people could die of asphyxiation on a stairway shelter, Kane creates a story whose characters are themselves either part of the accident or were involved in making follow-up inquiries. Laurence (Laurie) Dunn is the magistrate appointed to investigate and write the accident report within a short time of its occurrence. After 30 years, Paul Barber, a young filmmaker making a subsequent documentary about the tragedy, tracks down Laurie to interview him. Others who figure prominently are Ada Barber and her daughter, Tillie, two survivors of the accident. Weaving together the socioeconomic factors of London's East End, the weariness of war and refugee displacement, and the personalities of the various locals, this work of historical fiction implies that in times of peril there are sometimes no safe havens. VERDICT Kane keeps the reader consistently interested as fact and speculation evocatively intertwine. Highly recommended.--M. Neville, Trenton P.L., NJ

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