Book Review: How Many Miles to Babylon? by Jennifer Johnston

In rebuttal of those who rave about a picture telling a thousand words, I give you Jennifer Johnstons How Many Miles to Babylon? Despite a page extent that runs at just under 150, its an immense, almost overwhelming read. Johnstons style is sharply laconic, and her ability to pinpoint and tease out those horrible, selfish mannerisms and attitudes that are so painfully inherent in human relationships, but which are so often glossed over, is up there with Fitzgeralds (who did the same with admirable skill in Tender is the Night). This may seem like a slim, slight novel at first glance, but its a deeply affecting one, and Im in awe of Johnsons relentlessly honest approach.

Opening during the first stirrings of World War I, How Many Miles to Babylon?'examines the unlikely friendship between Alec, an upper middle-class Protestant boy from a highly aspirational family, and Jerry, a working class boy of Catholic background. Having united over their shared love of horses, the two are inseparable as children, but as they begin to mature, the class differences between them begin to grow more evident. Alecs bitter mother is disapproving of the friendship from the beginning, and is unrelenting in trying to exploit the uneven power dynamics involved to separate the two boys. But its not simply her machinations at work: Jerry points out that even if he were to work for Alecs family the divide would still be thereand perhaps more so. The two are about as star-crossed as a couple can be, and the divisions of class, religion and family become even more poignant when one considers the deeply homoerotic nature of the friendship.

With these factors working against them, the boys lose touch, with Alec living a sheltered and uninspired existence within the trappings of respectable society, and Jerry seeking out employment in order to help look after his family and further his skills. The contrast here is intriguing: where Jerrys life is necessarily one of industry, Alecs life feels largely pointless, a passing of days without any real impetus. In fact, his existence is much like that of the Divers in the aforementioned Tender is the Night, where hedonism and slothfulness eventually lead to the characters demiseand it rather does in this book, too.

Curiously, its Alecs mother who is given the role of the books antagonist, and in a very overt way, although in reality its not so much her as an individual as it is the wider circumstances of the boys backgrounds that serves to keep them apart. Alecs mother, then, is merely the embodiment of these circumstances, serving as a constant reminder of the reasons that they should not be together. Her acknowledgement of herself as a cruel person is an interesting one: she is utterly self-aware of the chaos and despair that she is creating, but sees it as essential to maintain the status quo. If Alecs mother can be extrapolated as representative of the wider context of Ireland at the timeas the social forces separating individuals by religion, class and morethen this becomes all the more moving.

Alecs mother offers constant exhortations that he make something of himself by enlisting in the war, but yet its his upper class background and his mothers overprotective nature that have stifled his ability or desire to do so. And indeed, his eventual enlistment is almost a proof of the tragic outcome this type of upbringing: Alec is effectively asked to sign over his life to elevate himself in societys eyes.

Like the rest of the book, Johnstons depiction of daily life in the trenches is almost painfully understated, and one cant help but see a void in their minds eye: theres a cold emptiness here thats broken only by occasional details such as Alecs chilblains and the screams of a wounded man in the night. It all feels starkly removed from reality, and indeed theres a sense that this is because Alec, given his sheltered background, is unable to comprehend the reality of whats going on around him. All, except, for that involving Jerry, who is there in the trenches with him. If Alecs experience in the trenches feels something like perpetual darkness, its Jerry who provides the odd moment of light, but with the class differences equally as evident even in the apparently egalitarian face of war, these moments are few indeed.

The ending, of course, is foreshadowed in the first few pages, but its one of the most moving Ive come across, and Johnston, in typical reticent style, suggests, with an echo of Romeo and Juliet, the sacrifice that needs to be made in order to overcome the divisive nature of class and religion.

Rating: (excellent)

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