Superb wartime classic
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Bombed out of her London flat, Miss Roach, thirty-nine and alone, takes up residence at the Rosamund Tea Rooms at Thames Lockdon. Here we encounter an array of lost, rootless, lonely people, the flotsam and jetsam of the War - the slaves of solitude.
The story unfolds through the eyes of the shy, self-effacing Miss Roach, a woman whose natural decency stands in stark contrast to the casual cruelty of the people around her; her fragile sense of self-worth, constantly undermined by her back-stabbing friend, the odious Vicki Kugelmann, the drunken ineptitude of her American lover, Lieutenant Pike, but most of all, her humiliation at the hands of one of Hamilton's most grotesque fictional monsters, the repellent Mr Thwaites - bully, narcissist, and Fascist sympathiser.
Despite the apparent tragedy of Miss Roach's situation, the pathos is relieved by Hamilton's unique black humour and his ability to write perfect, utterly convincing dialogue, infused with waspish comedy. Ever-present is the War itself, robbing the characters of their little comforts, dictating their everyday lives. An underrated, enjoyable, entertaining read. Great to see this wartime classic back in print again!
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Essential for admirers of Patrick Hamilton
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Any admirer of Hangover Square or the London trilogy should seek out and read this now out of print 1948 masterpiece, dealing with life in a small town boarding house during World War II. Beware: inside you will find some of the most passionately realised scenes of intensity in the whole of English literature. In places the fiery tension between the heroic Miss Roach and her two fellow lodgers and opponents, Vicki and the deranged, bullying Thwaites, burns its way across the pages. Patrick Hamilton also wrote plays, and this novel has an explosive dramatic force you are unlikely to find anywhere outside the very best pages of Dostoevsky. Written in an unfashionably warm and fulsome style, the novel has at heart a moral statement to make. It seems to say, the evils of nationalism and prejudice are not the stuff of newspapers or history books. The seedbed of fascism lies in everyday bullying and causal cruelty, and its antidote too lies in the courage of ordinary humanity. Note to Penguin: you really should reissue this one again...
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Intelligent, witty, above all, humane
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Along with Hangover Square and One Thousand Streets Under the Sky, this is a tremendous novel. Hamilton writes beautifully about a cast of dreadfuls- the parochial bores, the bitchy backstabbing friends, and above all the boozers. It is rare to read a book set in the 1940s which still seems so contemporary. The humour is biting and the depths and subtletys of character equal to Greene, Waugh and their ilk. Hamilton's writing brings to mind the Martin Amis school of tales from the London gutter, but his characters are achingly alive and never seem cartoonish. Read all three...
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A long overdue reprint of one of Hamilton's best
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Congratulations to Michael Holroyd for using his influence to secure the re-issue of The Slaves of Solitude (and Twenty Thousand Streets under the Sky). Hamilton's wartime England, viewed this time, not through the bottom of a glass, but through the eyes of a brave and decent woman who has been bullied all her life, is in my opinion his most moving work. A triumph from a writer who was himself sliding desparately downhill.
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A forgotten masterpiece
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This is without a doubt one of the greatest novels written about England in the Second World War - so why had I never read it until now? It's funny, cruel, compassionate, all the things that make Hangover Square, Hamilton's other major novel, such a joy. The characters - pitiful creatures in a suburban boarding house who bitch and drink their way through the War - are painfully vivid. The descriptions of sexual frustration, alcoholism and despair are spot on, and hilariously funny. I could rave on for the full 1000 words but I will say just one thing: READ THIS BOOK NOW.
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