Robert Dancer's Love, Class, and Deceit is a vignette of
a love story set during World War II and reads as if it were indeed written
during this time. The nostalgic reader will find the stylistic
straightforwardness and directly defined characters charming and inviting.
Dancer's narrative is well-written and uncomplicated. While some readers may
find the flat characters and linear plot too convenient, others will find these
traits genuine and embrace this tale for its simplicity and restraint of
verbose description. The setting and social class of people are somewhat
reminiscent of Gatsby's parties, but this is not a tale with that kind of
psychological depth or profound character exposition. The narrator is
unobtrusive; this is Realism in the literary sense.
As a strictly Realist/Naturalist narrative, there is no deep
introspection into psychological conflicts. There are events, dialogue and only
an occasional invitation to a character's consciousness. The rest is left to
the reader's imagination. Depending on your taste, this is part of its minimalist
charm or a problem of the lack of deep description. In both of these senses,
either as compliment or criticism, Love, Class and Deceit comes across
like a storyline from one of the quaint films of the tail end of Hollywood's
Golden Age. In fact, the third person
narration paints a point-of-view not unlike such a film, and this underscores
the novel's honesty and lack of pretense.
Andrew Bolton comes from an aristocratic family whose
heritage, as part of the conservative owning class, reaches back to pre-Civil
War. Andrew, a self-evident liberal relative to his patrician peers, emerges as
the quiet hero. Andrew's subtle leftist leanings are enough to contrast him to
those around him; namely, his father, best friend Peter Bates. There is less of
this contrast between Andrew and the love of his life, Natalie Rowlands.
Andrew's experiences in the war confirm his belief in embracing America's roots
as an immigrant nation; the multicultural band of brothers he shares the
battlefield become a model for what he sees as the country's migrant past and
more settled yet more diverse future. While on leave, Andrew meets Natalie via
their mutual friend Peter. Andrew and Natalie quickly fall in love and this is
what sustains his optimism when he returns to Europe and the war. To risk a
spoiler, I will only say that this optimism is the crux of the story's
deceitful turn.
Initially, only Andrew and Natalie are willing to think
beyond the traditions of their patrician families and the societal pressures
placed upon them. The class implications are only a soft undercurrent. This is
a love story, quaintly, pure and simple.
