THE DEVASTATING BOYS And Other Stories

by Elizabeth Taylor ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 28, 1972

Sensibility is both a word and a commodity which has been depreciated at everyone's expense. But is it not responsible for so much that is pleasurable both in the stories per se which appear in this collection and the expertise with which they are executed? There are eleven in all and they are varied in tone: whether it's the tatty failure of a holiday affair which ends in a bout of gout in ""Flesh"" or the marital counterpoint at the ""Hotel du Commerce."" The title story brings two ""Devastating Boys"" -- two underprivileged boys full of ""life, noise, laughter, quarreling"" to fill the hiatus between parenthood and grandparenthood in a country home; ""Tall Boy,"" far from his West Indian home in a London bedsitter, buys himself a tie which will enable him to call attention to his birthday or rather to himself in his estranged life; Kitty is a potential Daisy Ashford and a real ""menace"" with her tattletale-bearing ""In and Out of Houses""; there's a sad childhood memoir of two schoolmistresses longer ago in every way than it might seem, and for a frightening change of pace, try ""The Fly-Paper."" The stories are quite perfect of their kind since Miss Taylor manages to extricate more than you suspect out of seemingly inconspicuous materials.

Pub Date: April 28, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1972

Categories: FICTION