Buy it from Bookshop.org and support local booksellers
At a 100 small pages of large print this has been labelled a novella, but without wishing to split hairs is more a short story, or perhaps even the sketch for something intended to be worked up into the developed version – did Bennett send it to his publisher with a note asking them what they thought of the thing he was working on and rather than providing feedback they just forwarded it to the printer.
The ensemble cast is made up of a rich mix of characters, and each gets a moment to shine. The trip to the crematorium which the residents of Hill Topp treat like a bunch of wayward school children is probably the strongest scene, and the distinctions between Hill Topp and Low Moor provide some tension. Woodruff the flasher and his gay Son provide a lot of potential that never really gets unpacked. And then the arrival of COVID seems underplayed. Which when the mystery of Jigsaw-puzzler Miss Rathbone’s past is finally revealed it doesn’t have the impact it should.
As an aside, it credits the endpapers as being “adapted from a French Petit Pois label c.1920” which is not something you see everyday, I didn’t know the Petit Pois labels were a “thing”, but a search quickly found some suggestions, of which this one was probably the referenced inspiration https://i.pinimg.com/originals/3c/a0/bd/3ca0bdf0b2d4bc021504a9c4afd37de0.jpg
No comments:
Post a Comment