Better Read: ‘Fallen Skies’ reserved for seasoned readers

Although the phenomenon has in no way become something of the past, most stories about arranged, loveless marriages are saved for the relatively distant past.

However, Philippa Gregory brings this concept into the 20th century with “Fallen Skies,” an intense and dramatic post-war novel that takes place in the 1920s, a time period that is certainly outside of Gregory’s forte, as she usually sticks to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Stephen Winters is a soldier who has returned home from World War I with quite a mental burden.

Aside from repressing the horrors he saw and committed during that time, his family doesn’t understand him, and they’re hostile out of their guilt for pressuring him to fight overseas.

The world seems to be changing a little too quickly.

At a nightclub he finds Lily, a chorus girl with an exceptionally strong voice that brings him back to a time before the war.

Although Lily is falling in love with a man named Charlie, after a whirlwind of a courtship she finds herself married to Stephen.

It takes about five minutes for the marriage to turn sour, as Stephen becomes over-controlling and fiercely dominant over his new wife, and everyone is miserable.

Marrying Lily fails to silence Stephen’s demons, and this situation only strengthens Lily’s bond with Charlie.

Parts of this novel are really great and parts of it are rather frustrating.

Lily is constantly thinking about leaving Stephen as his abuse toward her and their child worsens, but Charlie won’t have her because he too fought in the war, which left him with, ah, how should I say?

He’s got no junk and feels it would be wrong to be in a relationship with a woman.

Charlie’s bitter passages about all this are heartbreaking of course, but it gets rather exhausting after many chapters.

Stephen’s post-war experience leaves a bit to be desired as well.

Although Gregory does a very good job dealing with his emotional toil, after 500 pages I kind of stopped feeling sorry for him and just became annoyed.

I get that he’s a lost cause due to the war, but the formula of someone saying something perfectly reasonable and Stephen flipping out and becoming a violent asshole tires. Maybe I’m just cold-hearted.

My favorite part of the book was reading about the expansive social change that was occurring in the 1920s.

I can see how fighting for your country only to come home to see it’s become practically unrecognizable would carry a toll on disturbed soldiers.

As most of the country embraces these changes and happily moves forward, Stephen and his peers barely have anything to ground them.

All in all though, “Fallen Skies” moves slowly for most of the novel and is far too long at 528 pages.

If this is a time period or plot theme you’re particularly interested in, you’ll probably get a lot out of it, but besides that it’s not worth trying to read this on top of a semester’s worth of work.

Gregory is largely an outstanding writer, and you would be better served looking into some of her other work (“The Other Boleyn Girl” never gets old. Don’t watch the movie; it sucks).

It was cool to read something of Gregory’s that was set outside of her typical time period, so “Fallen Skies” would be better reserved for seasoned fans.

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