THE SLIPWAY

by Graham Billing ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 25, 1973

An expertly contained and precisely observed portrait of a ""chemical man,"" an alcoholic who has come to the end of the Targett Line -- a shipping company -- anchored to the bottle hidden in his desk where he comes to open the mail -- mostly bills -- on the day before the destruction of his last ship. While Geoffrey overlooks ""life's real problems,"" he consciously faces more demanding challenges -- signing his name and corssing the last t or pouring the next drink without spilling a drop. Instead of answering a promising offer, he goes fishing and then returns home to get drunker, fabricate, quarrel with his doubting children, dredge up some of the past, and avoid the future which really no longer exists. Bi lling, a New Zealander, has annotated the physical and moral topography of the alcoholic -- his cunning, his devouring self-deception, his petulance, his resourcefulness, his indulgence -- with a sharp sense of truth and finality.

Pub Date: Oct. 25, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1973

Categories: FICTION