Girn of the Dark

(sic)

THE CHILDREN OF DYNMOUTH by William Trevor

“It was sticking to your guns that had made England, once, what England once had been. Nowadays it was like living in a rubbish dump.”

A chapter that is a veritable tour-de-force. I have never quite read anything like it before — accessible, simple, complicated, too, very disturbing, being a series of streams of consciousness of those inhabitants, young and old who dyncopate Dynmouth, and it is something in synergy with Ramsey Campbell from his Grin of the Dark mood. And much more, with us actually experiencing the thoughts of an awkward adolescent boy getting gradually drunk having been offered a series of alcoholic drinks by an adult who should have known better, and other acts of clumsy dressing up or charades, oven cleaning, plus much talk of others’ indecencies, and there are autonomous believable incursions from Hughie Greene, Benny Hill and Bruce Forsyth! And it all makes sense. Nonsense, too. And this opportunity knocks for any new reader of William Trevor to read a book that may have been overlooked by those who should know better….and especially for those who already know my real-time reviewing, this opportunity cannot be readily sneezed at!

Ongoing context of above here: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2021/07/23/the-children-of-dynmouth-by-william-trevor/