Of more substance than The Man Who Had Power Over Women, this is a genuinely involving story about a boy who takes the wrong...

READ REVIEW

FROM SCENES LIKE THESE

Of more substance than The Man Who Had Power Over Women, this is a genuinely involving story about a boy who takes the wrong road to manhood. Duncan Logan, fifteen, drops out of school to work on a farm. He's from a dusty, small Scottish industrial town where he despises the ""toffs"" and what he considers the ""nancy boys"" who are forced to abandon their nitty-gritty native tongue for ""bluidy English."" His heroes are the scrappy football players, locals, and the ragged hard-working, hard-drinking farm laborers. He is prepared to endure the needling from Blackie McCann, one of his co-workers while his respect for the womanizing Telfer grows. Then there's the cantankerous ""Auld Craig"" and his clod of a son who own the farm and run everything on a slovenly but profitable level. The characters are as real as the ""limpy"" crippled matron who schemes to appropriate Craig's son as husband and father of her child, and as touching as Dunky's rage when he learns that his girl has been had by Telfer. And there is a sensuousness in the writing that makes Dunky's fate--to become coarse and eventually obsolete--doubly sad.

Pub Date: Jan. 23, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1968

Close Quickview