Anyone read it? Spoilers ahead. What's the significance of these two events at the end:
- The white dog barking at Elizabeth. Is this supposed to be John Kemp getting in a "last-word" against what she and Christopher represent?
- The poet whose home John Kemp drunkenly bursts into. He starts to read him a poem and then he interrupts, saying he needs to take a shit.
I can see the latter as Kemp never quite mastering his own destiny. He sought refuge in his creative works but could not harness this to bring about meaningful change in his life.
He talks about the bombing of Huddlesford as though it were a new start, "It meant no more to him now, and so it was destroyed: it seemed symbolic, a kind of annuling of his childhood... It was as if he had been told: all the past is cancelled." (202) His parents are essentially landless; their visit to Oxford is Kemp's opportunity to wow them with his new, re-energised, intellectual, post-war life. The only scene waiting them is Kemp's injured, feverish body.
The nurse says of Kemp, "He's in no danger. Really, he's never been in the slightest danger at all." This can be read as either Kemp being his own undoing, or of a kind of British sense of perseverance; an optimism that Britain will endure and recover from the pains of World War 2.
If you haven't read it, it's worth at least a read for the excellent last 50-60 pages.
>>8157159
>I can see the latter as Kemp never quite mastering his own destiny. He sought refuge in his creative works but could not harness this to bring about meaningful change in his life.
I should say, Kemp interrupting the poet is like a crass rejection of the peace and serenity he could have found in his creative works (the poet seems the only person not engaging in drunken revelry in the complex).
is there any particular reason larkin keeps showing up lately or is it just because you've all found a new person to prop up that the sjw establishment doesn't like
He wrote it when he was like 20.
Never expected to see this on here - I bet you could count on both hands how many people have read this in the last ten years.
Yes, I read it a few months ago after stumbling across a 2nd hand copy.
Enjoyed it overall, though you can tell that it was written by someone very young and really, it wouldn't be remembered at all now if it weren't a piece of semi-interesting juvenilia by a major poet.
Very interesting to see how Larkin's well known women issues were manifested in him as a young man - not that I'm saying the novel is strictly autobiographical, but that the neurosis is already there, and tied up with class and the north/south divide.
You're right OP, the finale's great. Wish I'd also picked up A Girl In Winter, but I decided against it.
(Sorry OP, should have also addressed the two points)
Don't remember the scene with the dog too well - with regard to the poet, I think it's just to contrast Kemp obsessing over this social circle than actually doing what he's come to Oxford for. Nothing too complicated - in fact, that's possibly the reason these two comments of mine read like some high school-level analysis.
Would like to be more insightful, but I don't think there's so much depth in the novel itself, the author was only 20 after all.
>>8157892
>>8157883
It sucks that this book would likely be overlooked in today's publishing environment. There are so many bad or average first novels written by authors who have gone on to be big names, they just don't seem to get the change these days. I read John Edward Williams's debut "Nothing But The Night" and it sucked so badly (he was 26 when it was published) but it obviously gave him the confidence to write another book. I have interned at a couple of publishing houses in the UK and the staff have openly told me to check the author's name on google first to see how many twitter followers etc they have. It's largely a marketing culture now.
The book was certainly autobiographical and to be honest it was quite boring until the end.
There are certainly themes of creation and rebuilding; if you want to talk background it was written during the war and publushed in 46.
Also the dog scene is the very last thing that happens in the book. Christopher and Elizabeth wait for a taxi. As she hops in, a white dog growls at her.
>>8157939
This cannot be trueand if it is we're fucked.
How do they expect an unknown to have a big fan base? What of those, like me, who read but dont use twitter? And, like me, do I now have to sign up and start cultivating a profile for future endeavours?
This is really worrying.
