A WINTER IN THE HILLS

by John Wain ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1970

John Wain, whose anger (and flair) of the '40's has been subsiding ever since into a steadfast seriousness has written an old-fashioned (this is not intended pejoratively) novel shaped by the clannish, resistant and admirably changeless small Welsh village in which it is set. Roger Furnivall, a philologist of forty, comes there to extend his language and sexual skills. And he becomes involved in two seemingly lost causes which will end in small triumphs: his attempt to help Gareth, a hunchbacked bus driver and the last one to oppose a local monopolist, even to the extent of personal violence; and his reclamation of Jenny, unhappily married to a smooth economist, which will end in his full responsibility for her and her children. . . . Wain, no more innovational a stylist than the material he uses, still keeps his story signally well sustained while juxtaposing man's individual, stress individual, existence against the encroachments of the century (bullying bureaucracy, greed, materialism, etc.). The novel has both stamina and sympathetic concern.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1970

Categories: FICTION