Hart, Alastair MacDonald. Their Cruel Lives. Self Published Kindle Edition, 2024.
Reason read: Every month (or so) I get to review cool books from LibraryThing.
Confessional: in the early pages of Their Cruel Lives I had the feeling I was not supposed to like the protagonist of the story. From the onset I learned that Archibald Hennessy is supposed to be charmless, friendless, and a veritable loner. He is out of work, but not knowing his story, this made me highly suspicious of Hennessy’s intentions. I had no idea know why. I think that is the sign of an accomplished writer. Hart had the ability to make me feel something for the main character almost immediately even though it was not a positive reaction.
But. Back to the plot. Archibald Hennessy lands an overnight janitorial job at a World War I veterans home. His main responsibility is to clean up after the patients. On his very first night he befriends Herbert, a man destined to be a man of God until his father convinced him to go to war. He enjoys talking to Herbert and learning about his life. From there, Archibald meets Arthur, a man with childhood ambitions of being an Olympic athlete until the war took his legs and Norman, a simple farm boy who left home to be a sailor. Each man moved Archibald to consider what would have happened to these men had they not been gravely injured in World War I. He felt it was a travesty that all the men of the Excelsior Institute listlessly sat around without conversation or companionship; they ate barely decent food and didn’t have worthwhile entertainment beyond television. Even though Archibald was not injured in a war or had a limb amputated, he connected with the lost souls of the Excelsior Institute. It became his life’s mission to fix the broken system that did not respect its veterans.
Building upon my previous confessional: I would have loved it if Hart could have had Archibald interview Nurse Jocelyn, the antagonist of the story. Who was she? Why had she worked at the Excelsior Institute for so long and what did she think when it started to decline? I would have thought it would be a great plot twist if Archibald had been able to emotionally connect with Jocelyn and get her to have a change of heart. She could have been the heroine of the story. Also, Hart could have told us more about Archibald Hennessy. Who was he? Where did he come from? What was his story? I think I would have celebrated his successes more if I had connected with him from the beginning.
Please note: I usually love to quote authors when I think they have written something especially brilliant or moving or profound. I will not be sharing anything from Their Cruel Lives due to copyright constraints.
Author fact: Hart has written a bunch of books. None of them are on my Challenge list.
Book trivia: My downloaded version of Their Cruel Lives did not include any cover design.
Playlist: “All Creatures Great and Small”.
~*LunaSea*~ 