A GREEN TREE IN GEDDE

by Alan Sharp ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 3, 1965

This first novel will be specially launched by the publisher and it is the work of a young Scotsman with properties which almost seem more Irish. It is full of densely lyrical descriptions, particularly of the countryside around Greenock on the Clyde where it opens (""A great field, bubbed and bronded....A small wind accomplished fluences of green, running swales, glossal licks"" etc.). The writing is obviously more tumid than disciplined. It is also Joycean in its sensuous and at times lubricious approach to life. The ""West Coast Scottish preoccupation with guilt and sex and sin"" appears to be much more physical than metaphysical...This is the first of a projected trilogy, and as such, expansive and exploratory to begin with, dealing primarily with three young men and one young woman, friends and lovers or both. John Moseby, who is going to teach and going to write, appears to be the only one who is somewhat settled; he has married the innately prim Edna who often flinches with disapproval and distaste, just like her mother. John's escape will take him on the one hand to his first girl, acceptantly resuming the old relationship, and second to talks with a minister. Then there's Peter and Ruth Cuffee, brother and sister, whose incestuous attachment has been longstanding and overtly indulged. They separate now, Peter to go to Paris via London with an old friend, the gentle, withdrawn Harry Gibbon, and after further erotic experiences and exposures, Harry comes back to look up Ruth while Peter stays on in Paris....At one point these young men refer to themselves as existentialists and define the ""twin pillars of our existentialism"" as religion and sexuality. Certainly in this first volume they are only deadlocked within their sexuality but perhaps the later books will widen the Gestalt.

Pub Date: May 3, 1965

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: New American Library

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1965

Categories: FICTION