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Francis Wyndham
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Media
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Book
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Publisher | Picador | ||
ISBN | 9780330457200 | ||
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Reviewer
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Jayne
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Synopsis
The stories and classic novel collected here are the work of one of the most subtle and observant writers of our time. Drawing on haunting encounters, solitary lives, hours spent in longing, and the blossoming of unlikely friendships, Wyndham's writing is full of gestures that celebrate the day-to-day while at the same time reaching out for a more profound engagement, a larger truth. Just over the horizon is the War, its progression touching the lives of women left behind, of young men awaiting call-up, and of those people who have simply been passed by, left to spend their days in their own familiar worlds; all evoked with grace, wit, and luminous elegy. '"The Other Garden", so swiftly paced, is a gem' - "TLS". 'A singular, particular, gentle, biting, vastly entertaining, original writer' - "Harper's Bazaar".
Review
This book a collection of stories and the main story 'The Other Garden' was the winner of a the Whitebread First Novel Prize in 1987.
Each story within the book has a different type of mood "The Other Garden" is bright and dazzling and then melanchonic and sorrowful. But this is the only novel within the book. The reader cannot help being struck by the thought and the choice of these stories being put together to complete the collection."The Other War" is also marked by the sense of bitterness that war and destruction of life that befalls the characters.
These were not my favorite collection of stories but I can remember the author writing in The Sunday Times which my parents used to buy each week. I find the essays, as Francis Wyndham calls them, at times dry, but the information within them is really fascinating.
All the stories were originally printed in The Sunday Times and have been well read over the years by many people. I feel that they are much more suited to readers who are interested in the history of the period of when they were written - in the late 60's to 80's.
These are definitely stories for the next generation to read and to understand their parents and grandparents.
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