Grace and Favor

by Thomas Caplan

Book Overview

In a spell-casting novel reminiscent of Brideshead Revisited, a contemporary American expatriate and his aristocratic English wife find their idyllic life threatened by family secrets,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312171064
• ISBN13: 9780312171063
• Release Date: November 1997
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 323 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

A sensitive reflective novel that rewards the careful reade

Grace and Favor is an intriguing novel and well worth the read. Mr Caplan captures well the sense of anxiety that besets those of us who attempt to wend our way through the thicket of English society. It is, as Mr Caplan's character John Brook might have admitted, something of an emotional roller-coaster as one is alternately assured of one's place and then reminded that one is at best a tolerated temporary visitor. The popular usage of `grace and favour' refers to large country estates, the use of which is granted to high government officials during their time in office. Chequers, for example, is the `grace and favour' estate of the Prime Minister; and a snap election could displace the occupant from a `grace and favour' estate less than four weeks after the dissolution of parliament. The title seems meant to evoke the sense in which John Brook feels he is only present at Castlemorland by the grace and favour of his wife and her family. The book is a sensitive and reflective exploration of Brook's search for a sense of belonging more permanent than a 'grace and favour' situation can allow.