The Children of Dynmouth by William Trevor
My previous reviews of William Trevor: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/tag/william-trevor/
My previous reviews of older or classic books: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/reviews-of-older-books/
When I read this book, my thoughts will appear in the comment stream below…
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Pages 1 – 11
“The children of Dynmouth were as children anywhere. They led double lives; more regularly than their elders they travelled without moving from a room.”
Or moving from a town like Dynmouth? And we receive an engaging portrait of this Dorset seaside town, a town that to many would be unengaging to live in for any length of time! A town with a pier and a hill called Once Hill ….and a sandpaper factory! We meet the Featherstones of the Rectory, with twin 4 year old daughters who seem to believe that jam can fall. To be their only children following a miscarriage.
And we meet other characters whom I shall not list here, including, for at least the time being, the one whom I anticipate being this book’s central character, one who calls the vicar ‘Mr Feather’ without the ‘stone’.
Pages 11 – 27
These pages are honestly stranger or better than even some of the best or strangest of Aickman. I can’t itemise all the ingredients here, but it seemed the essence of some 1960/70s era when people seemed to act or behave like this, and watched Benny Hill or Hughie Greene or Crossroads. And when everyone was most peculiar. Today hasn’t got a patch on those days. We can no longer act or behave at all, but simply oscillate between the ends of a spectrum of awarenesses and various incorrectnesses that we hate or think we hate.
I will never do justice to this book, so perhaps I won’t try!
See how I go, while I read on to the end of this book, as I definitely will — whether or not I report any further on it here.