Review: The Pavilion in the Clouds
Gaby Meares
Set in 1938 Ceylon and the dying days of the British Empire, The Pavilion in the Clouds is a stand alone novel from the prodigious pen of Alexander McCall Smith.
I have mixed emotions about this book. I found parts a bit of a plod - I wasn’t as engaged with the characters as I usually am with McCall Smith’s novels. In fact, not a lot happens for much of the novel. There are long passages of the characters’ thoughts. Much time is spent by young Bella and her mother being suspicious of the governess - is she having an affair with Bella’s father? These people have too much idle time on their hands! There were echos of Atonement as Bella does something that will affect many lives, for many years.
McCall Smith creates a sense of claustrophobia in this ex-pat community which is clinging on to the last vestiges of a colonial life of comfort. Everyone knows everyone else’s business. Women are bored; men are all powerful.
As always, this is a gentle book, and in these turbulent times, it is like a soothing salve for the reader’s bruised soul.