Old Soldiers by Paul Bailey – #ABookADayInMay – Day 21

I really should read more by Paul Bailey. Whenever I do, I’m reminded what an excellent writer he is. And Old Soldiers (1980) is another tour de force from him. It feels odd to call a novella a tour de force, but in 130 pages he manages to create a world – or perhaps several. It opens with this excellent line: Too sick with grief for tears, Victor Harker arrived in London smiling. Victor Harker is starting a new life without his wife, Stella. Throughout the novella, Stella floats in snapshots – she was clearly a plain-speaking, kind, lively woman. Perhaps it is easier to show a successful marriage in retrospect than on the page, but Bailey does a very impressive job, in these fleeting glances of a marriage, to show how deeply they loved and needed each other – and how alone Victor Harker now feels without her. But Harker is not allowed to be lonely for long. Bursting into assumed friendship with him is Captain Hal Standish. He is boisterous, vulgar, and unstoppable. Harker doesn’t…