June 11, 2004

The Other Side of the Fire, Alice Thomas Ellis

Dignity, I admit, will not keep you warm in winter, but it is a little something to cover the nakedness.

How English. I can't think of an American author, not a living one, with that characteristic combination of dissection and affection. Ellis' characters are pathetic, in that they inspire pathos, not that they know it. They're all suffering under a microscope, not playing on a stage.

And yet, stupid as the sweet ones are, right as the clever ones are to put no faith in those who love them, it turns out pretty much all right in the end. Dignity means not talking about it, so making no errors that can't be kindly ignored.

There is a funny (ha-ha) subplot about talking about far too much because one is a Writer.

ISBN: 1888173858

So wrote clew in Fiction (20th c.). | TrackBack
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