Anthony Powell, Temporary Kings (1973)

The penultimate book in the series is also the first that takes place at a time subsequent to when Powell first conceptualized the series.  Is that interesting?  It is to be doubted.  But now we're in 1958, with ol' Nick in his fifties.  

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Anthony Powell, Books Do Furnish a Room (1971)

Check it out--the first (and last) title in the series that's a complete sentence.  Whoooaaah!

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The Complete Poetic Works

 Prologue

A

The time was yesterday.

It was afternoon.

There was a storm.

The storm was strong.

The movement of the storm was quick.

The storm moved toward the coast.

The coast was in North Carolina.

B

Susan went somewhere.

That place was the mall.

Susan wanted to buy new shoes.

The shoes were for Susan's mother.

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Anthony Powell, The Military Philosophers (1968)

It's quite difficult to summarize these books, innit?  It's easier to just list a series of events.  Well, as noted, this is the last War book, beginning in '42 and ending in '45.  Nick gets promoted to major, and he ends up working as a liaison with Belgian and Czech troops.  At one point we see him at a production of The Bartered Bride, although, no surprise, he doesn't offer any opinion as to the work's merit (this isn't the first time opera has been referenced in the series, but I don't think he's any super-big fan or anything; it's just a sort of bourgeois form of entertainment that you might sometimes go to as a matter of course).  Later, he does actually go abroad, to France, but, natch, no actual fighting.

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Abortion "debate"

 "You like killing babies."

"Dude, you're part of a party that believes in fucking over refugees, in poor people dying for lack of healthcare, in destroying the environment, in a violent gun culture where everyone's on a hair-trigger all the time...and hell, you don't even support government-sponsored prenatal care and also your beloved President pardoned a literal serial killer, and you don't care, if you're not actually super in favor of it, as you probably are because you're cool with murdering brown people.  The idea that you're super seriously concerned about this nebulous concept of 'life' is just grotesque."

"Well...you like killing babies."

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