'The Ice Age'

Author: Margaret Drabble

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson / 1977

Pages: 297

Over the past years I have written a number of reviews of Margaret Drabble's books, exploring her character studies, social commentary and themes of mid-life and British society.

The books I have reviewed were Jerusalem the Golden, A Natural Curiosity, A Summer Bird Cage, and The Millstone.

The book I am reviewing today is also from the earlier phase of her writing. I will come to it later on.

Drabble's early novels were published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson while her later ones were published by Penguin, Viking and Cannongate.

A recurring theme is the correlation between contemporary English society and its people.

Most of her protagonists are women and the realistic descriptions of her figures often derive from her own personal experience.

Her first novels describe the lives of young women in the 1960s and 1970s focusing mainly on the conflict between motherhood and intellectual challenges.

The Witch of Exmoor is an exception - it shows the withdrawn existence of an elderly writer.

Author Hilary Mantel wrote in 1989: "Drabble's heroines have aged with her, becoming solid and sour, more prone to drink and swear; yet with each successive book their earnest, moral nature flourishes."

Her second book, The Garrick Year, drew upon her theatrical experience.

Her third novel, The Millstone, was published in 1965 about an unmarried woman with a baby.

Her fourth novel, Jerusalem the Golden, published in 1987, was about an English woman who like Drabble is from the North and attending university in London.

Her fifth novel, The Waterfall, was an experimental novel and her sixth, The Needle's Eye, published in 1972, was about an heiress who gives away her inheritance.

Her seventh novel, The Realms of Gold, published in 1975, had a woman archaeologist as its central character.

Today's book, her eighth novel, The Ice Age, published in 1980, is set in the 1970s England and the social and economic conditions of that time. 

Her ninth novel, The Middle Ground, had a woman journalist as its central character. 

Her 11th novel, A Natural Curiosity, published in 1989, continued the story of characters from her 10th novel, The Radiant Way, published in 1987. 

Her 13th novel, The Witch of Exmoor, published in 1996, treated aspects of contemporary Britain.

Her 14th novel, The Peppered Moth, published in 2001, treated a young girl growing up in a mining town in South Yorkshire, and spanned four generations of her family.

Her 15th novel, The Seven Sisters, published in 2002, was about a woman whose marriage has collapsed and off she goes to Italy.

The Observer described a section of her 16th novel, The Red Queen, published in 2004, as "psycho-babble".

Drabble's 17th novel, The Sea Lady, (published in 2006) was compared favourably with her earlier book The Needle's Eye.

In 2009 Drabble announced she would cease to write fiction for fear of "repeating herself".

Now, the book I am reviewing this week.

Anthony Keating, a rebel against his liberal upbringing, has switched from producing "social conscience" programmes to speculative work, where he has discovered that he excels.

But a spell of enforced idleness at his 17th century North Yorkshire moors home causes him to reappraise the direction in which he is heading.

The sour winds of the 1970s have blown out some of that spirit of ebullient enterprise of the preceding decade and Anthony feels threatened from all sides.

Alison Murray, the woman that Anthony Keating loves, is suffering the pangs of middle age. Emerging from her marriage to an egocentric actor, and having given up a promising career in acting herself, Alison finds herself torn between the needs of her two daughters: Jane, in prison behind the Iron Curtain, and Molly, whose cerebral palsy necessitates constant care and security.

Through Anthony and Alison we are introduced to their families and friends: to Anthony's former wife, the chaotic Babs; to Len Wincobank, Anthony's idol in the whiz-kid property speculation line - now doing time in Scratby Open Prison; to Maureen, Len's cheerful and down-to-earth girlfriend; to Kitty Friedman, survivor of a restaurant bombing; to Linton Hancox, brilliant classics scholar and poet of talent - 20 years ago.

As the events of the novel unfold, Keating's own search for meaning in his life takes a surprising turn when he discovers, purely by chance, exactly the modus vivendi that can give piquancy to his middle-age angst.