Giving Up Architecture – Eliza Mood
Eliza’s Mood’s debut novel is the
story of Clem, a man struggling to re-establish his identity after serving in
the Ambulance Corps as a conscientious objector during the Second World War.
Clem faces his demons by spending increasing amounts of time in out of body
flights. There he explores issues of identity, betrayal and loss through the
innovative use of traditional tales, which assist him to articulate and make
sense of otherwise unspoken fragments from his past. Meanwhile, in his daily
life as a teacher in post war Britain his relationship with Lou, is
developing.
Giving Up Architecture is a novel of enormous range and depth exploring universal
themes through the medium of two ordinary lives torn apart by war. In finely
observed and highly researched prose the narrative asks what happens to
ordinary lives when international concerns intrude and what it means to belong
to a particular group, whether Jewish, Quaker or German, over against issues of
individual identity. This is a rich story peopled by authentic characters whose
concerns, doubts and hopes resonate across generations.
Eliza Mood is a Lecturer in English Language
and Creative Writing at St. Martin ’s College, Lancaster. She is currently
researching a non-fiction book on the relationships between oral and written
narrative; narrative and non-narrative. Seaglass
