It starts with an old Logan,living in peaceful seclusion in the French countryside,and being told by his doctor that his heart is bad,and basically,he hasn't got much more time.Logan then goes into a room in his house filled with piles of his old journals,and boxes of old belongings,and old pictures of people he has loved and lost.There,he begins to reminisce over his life,which brings us to the first flashback.
In the 1920s,Logan is finishing his last term at Cambridge,along with friends Peter Scabius,and Ben Leeping.Logan is trying desperately to beat his friend Peter at losing his virginity before he leaves school.Once he has left,he returns home to a dying father,who expects him to carry on in the family corned beef industry,and makes him promise he will do so.Problem:Logan wants to be a writer.He does not keep his promise,but soon has his own flat,and gets himself an agent and starts to try to write the masterpiece he has always dreamed of.He has a love affair with a girl named Land,whom he proposes to,and she rejects him,leaving him heartbroken.He shortly thereafter rushes into marriage with a girl named Lottie,even though anyone could (and did) tell him that it wouldn't make him happy.
As predicted,his marriage with Lottie is a failure,even the birth of their son Lionel not able to bring any peace between them.He leaves the country for a vacation in Spain and meets a girl named Freya.They fall in love,and throughout the story it becomes apparent that Freya has always been the only woman he ever truly loved.They eventually settle down in a house outside London (once divorced from Lottie) and have a daughter named Stella.Things are never happier for Logan than at this time in his life.He begins to go on assignments for the British Naval Criminal Intelligence during WWII.On his last assignment he is captured and imprisoned for over a year.Once released,the war is over,and he returns to London to discover that Freya and Stella were killed in a V-2 bomb attack.
With a failed suicide attempt under his belt,Ben Leeping comes back into the picture,offering Logan a job at his art gallery in NYC.Logan accepts,and moves to the United States.He has a run as an alchoholic,has another failed marriage to a woman named Alannah,and is shortly but happily reunited with his son Lionel.Shortly,because Lionel sadly overdoses on drugs and dies.
Logan eventually returns to London,where things go on as uneventuful as ever,as Logan slips into old age.One day he is hit by a car,and has to spend time recovering in a hospital.He is shocked by the poor treatment people receive there,and greived to learn that his friend Ben has died of cancer.After a brief career with the SPK,he eventually moves to the south of France,where we found him in the beginning.
Logan finishes his reminiscing,and burns a large quantity of his most personal letters and items that he has gone over.He then continues on with life for a few more quiet days,before he dies outside his home,hearing Freya's voice for the last time.
His journals are discovered after his death,and published,being the best selling masterpiece that Logan tried so long to write,but never did.
Admittedly,it is a very sad story,but very poetic,and extremely fascinating. It provides a look into some of the biggest occurences of the 20th century,and introduces you to some of the most prominent names of the day along the way,including Ernest Hemingway,and the Duke of Windsor.
Be warned,that there are several graphic moments in the story,but overall,it is a touching,and historical tale.
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