Book 16 – “Every Man for Himself” by Beryl Bainbridge

It’s the early years of the twentieth century and the great and the good of society are represented on the maiden voyage of a new liner. As the ship crosses the Atlantic the bright young things gamble, drink and gossip, filling in the time before they too become important men or the wives of important men. It all seems idyllic, although the cracks in society and in these seemingly perfect lives are beginning to show. But there’s a problem ahead that the passengers can’t possibly know about although the reader does. The ship they are sailing on is the Titanic.

Beryl Bainbridge’s novel Every Man for Himself is about the relationships between these young and mostly rich people for whom life has always been easy. The characters think that their lives will be the same for ever but the reader knows that in a few days’ time everything will change. This adds a layer of tension to the novel as we don’t know who will survive or what will happen to them.

The story is seen through the eyes of a young man called Morgan (no first name given) who is the adopted or illegitimate son of the great American financier. We get only glimpses into his history but we know that although he has money he doesn’t have the same place in society as his friends and that he will have to earn his living. Morgan has been working for the designers of the ship and he has access to places and people that others don’t. In the course of this voyage he has to decide what he is going to do with his life.

This is historical fiction and most of the characters are not real people. Some, however, are including J Pierpoint Morgan who missed the sailing of the Titanic. Extensive research (Google) didn’t show me that the main character in this book actually existed. I did recognise some of the other names though and I know that the order of the events of the disaster is accurate even if what happened to the characters isn’t.

This is a book about people with privilege and shows us clearly that most of their lives have little substance. There are, however, characters and events which have weight and stories, many of which are sad. It’s a short book and we see only glimpses into lives and relationships until they are completely disrupted by the disaster and they have to make life or death decisions. I enjoyed this story although I think that I would have liked more details of the back story of Morgan and the future of the characters that survived – that, however, is only personal preference and would not have achieved what the author intended when she wrote the book this way.