Mal Peet - Tamar

 

Tamar veers back and forth between two different timelines: 1945, as hunger and fear continue to grip the Netherlands as the Second World War draws to a close; and 1995, as Tamar, a 16-year-old girl, tries to unravel a box of mysterious clues left to her by her recently deceased grandfather.

Tamar has been named after the code name given to her grandfather during the war, not the actual river itself that runs between Devon and Cornwall - although the box of clues sends her on a journey of discovery down said river as she tries to figure out the meaning of the rather obscure hints left to her and also develops romantic feelings for her distant cousin who accompanies her on the way. Meanwhile, Tamar and another secret operative, Dart, are parachuted into Holland as part of the resistance and are faced with a whole heap of problems - from organising and maintaining the peace amongst the differing resistance groups throughout the country, to communicating in secret back to London, rationing food during a desperate winter shortage, and dealing with a group of local resistance fighters who demand more overt action in order to overthrow the Nazi regime (bringing about some rather nasty troubles as a consequence of this). To further complicate matters, Dart has fallen for Marijke, a local woman who is already in love with Tamar.

A lot of Tamar's narrative strength lies in its Sixth-Sense-esque element of surprise - rather like that film, if you know the twist, it spoils a lot of the fun for you. Unfortunately, I'd figured it out less than halfway through. Whether this was a result of Peet providing too many obvious signposts throughout both timelines, or some lucky guessing/hunches on my part, I'm not sure.

What I am sure about, however, is how difficult it has been to find anything much to say about what is at a glance a well-written and multi-layered novel. One part of the problem for me appears to be the 1945 sections. Peet spends too long on these and not enough on the 1995 story - resulting in the 1995 chapters always feeling as though they are interrupting the flow of what Peet is really wanting to tell us for the sake of maintaining the dual narrative. Also, I found the 3 main characters from 1945 a little flatly drawn. Marijke didn't seem to have enough personality and general life to her in order for both men to fall for her so hard; meanwhile Peet does a good job of taking us inside both Dart and Tamar's heads, but never quite succeeded in making me truly care about them as people.

The two narrative structure does, at times, feel rather like two different books glued together - although there are common themes and symbols and recurring characters, the effect for me felt rather like trying to squeeze together two bits of a jigsaw that don't quite fit right. The chief issue is that 1945 reads more like work for an adult audience than for young adults; the 1995 section the exact opposite. Maybe it's the would-be writer in me casting too critical an eye over the structure, but I couldn't help but thinking how different edits and changes to the two timelines would have resulted in a rather different story, and how I would have changed this to better suit my own tastes.

Mal Peet has done a reasonable job with this book. It's interestingly structured, has some powerful imagery, tough character choices and shows the brutal implications that taking action during the war could result in, and he can clearly come up with some excellent metaphors and narrative descriptions that contributed to my enjoyment of the story. I also liked the nicely ambiguous questions he raised at the end about the character of Tamar’s grandfather and his actions. But considering the barrage of effusive praise that this novel received (see its inner jacket for commendations from such luminaries as multi-Carnegie winner Jan Mark), I was rather left feeling a little disappointed. Tamar is a nice read, but although everything about its plotlines suggest it packs a heck of an emotional punch, for me it just missed the mark. An average novel rather than a great one, but many would disagree.