Divine Comedy: 'The Feast' by Margaret Kennedy – Book Recommendation

Assorted characters gather together in a Cornish hotel in 1947 to enjoy (if that’s the right word) a post-war seaside holiday. Unfortunately, one of Cornwall’s cliffs collapses on top of the hotel one night, killing all in the building. Sounds depressing, doesn’t it? Well, it really isn’t. The Feast is peppered with impressively subtle observational wit, and is a brilliant portrait of late-1940s British society. Starting with the revelation of the disaster, the novel relates in flashback the events of the week leading up to it, the whole point of which is to leave the reader wondering who the victims will be, and who will escape.

In The Feast, originally published in 1950, Margaret Kennedy depicts a country struggling with post-war austerity and class war. Pendizack Manor Hotel is peopled by the put-upon, the compassionate, the selfish, and self-indulgent from all ranks of society, along with all their hopes, dreams, desires, and aspirations. Parenthood is a running theme, as adults who missed out on having children rub shoulders with those who deeply resent their offspring, or who use them in various ways for their own ends, along with others who clearly have their favourites. The effects of these parental relationships are shown in the portrayals of the children, including those who have now reached adulthood themselves. Love and marriage (and lust) are here too, but alongside sweet and innocent young love, Kennedy is careful to show how something that started with great promise can go horribly awry, as we meet more than one unhappy couple. The Feast brims with spite and kindness, lust and lies, greed, love, heartbreak, regret, and redemption. After six years of manmade horror brought by the Second World War, it is an act of God which does for seven of the hotel guests (although the catastrophe may have been caused by a mine exploding in a cave a few months earlier). The dead represent the seven deadly sins, and it’s actually rather fun trying to work out who embodies lust, and who sloth, pride, and covetousness, etc. Some of the hotel’s inhabitants certainly exhibit more than one sin. But who will live and who will die? Will the deserving survive, or will they perish beside the unworthy?

The Feast is eminently readable, with characters you’ll love to love and love to hate in equal measure. Both social commentary and witty, modern fable, this book is an absolute joy.

 

The Feast by Margaret Kennedy ISBN: 9780571367795