The best of William Trevor's three Whitbread winning novels, "Fools of Fortune" is an exceptional book. No literary pyrotechnics, it just shows how simple understated prose can be so devastating in the hands of a master. This emotional story follows Willie, at first looking back to his childhood and later as a young man. There are a dozen pages half way through about an incident at school where the dialogue is hilarious as three boys try to talk their way out of an expellable offence.
Then a description of the lawyer Mr Lanigan: "He was a person of pyramidal shape, a small head sloping into the slope of his shoulders, arms sloping again as he spread them over his desk. A chalk-striped brown suit imposed a secondary shape of it's own, with a heavy watch chain slung across a waistcoat so tightly fastened over the slope of Mr Lanigan's stomach that it appeared to be perpetually on the point of bouncing a dozen tiny buttons all over his office. Two beady eyes ….." and so it goes on.
Willie's story is written in the first person, but I loved those sparse references to "you". "I wished that you had shared my childhood". No, not the reader but someone else. We have to wait until halfway for "Well, you know of course about the letter" followed immediately by "Two rooms, never used before were prepared for your arrival". That is all we know. There is darkness woven into this family story, with sadness as well as joy. Later there are echoes of the writer's brilliant "Felicia's Journey" as "you" takes over.
The third in what I guess will be a semi-autobiographical continuing series about the life of Lizzie Vogel. I enjoyed the first two ("Man at the Helm" and "Paradise Lodge") and the third is equally good. Whilst in some ways they are light and frothy stories, they do combine lots of humour with the occasional bite. The writing is witty, clever and very readable.
We are now in 1980 and Lizzie is eighteen, avoiding college and instead finding a job as a dental nurse. Her mother is trying to shelve all her vices. She does not deserve he new husband Mr Holt who is far too nice to her and Lizzie. Unfortunately his character is only thinly drawn, unlike that for the dentist and Lizzie's "boyfriend". He may not agree with that term.
There are lots of laugh out loud moments, mainly in the early and later parts. And there are quite a few moralistic comments. One character is described with the words "She believed in God so fiercely, she had no faith left over for other people". We need books like this at the moment.
We are now in 1980 and Lizzie is eighteen, avoiding college and instead finding a job as a dental nurse. Her mother is trying to shelve all her vices. She does not deserve he new husband Mr Holt who is far too nice to her and Lizzie. Unfortunately his character is only thinly drawn, unlike that for the dentist and Lizzie's "boyfriend". He may not agree with that term.
There are lots of laugh out loud moments, mainly in the early and later parts. And there are quite a few moralistic comments. One character is described with the words "She believed in God so fiercely, she had no faith left over for other people". We need books like this at the moment.
I quite enjoyed the first half of this book, however when the violence started I couldn't wait to finish. The other two of his Jackson Lamb series that I have read were more to my taste. Note to self: there are much better books out there that I have not read.
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