THE SUDDEN GUEST

by Christopher La Farge ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 6, 1946

An absorbing and compelling story -- a psychological study of a selfish, ingrown old woman, who has to live through two hurricanes on the Rhode Island shore to learn that life demands human participation. La Farge has done a superb tour de force-it isn't really a novel, though it has the ingredients, and he has used the technique of Rumer Godden's Take Three Tenses.-the story is told as a fugue. With the two storms (1958 and 1944) as protagonists, he telescopes two experiences, as Miss Leckton, vainly attempting to preserve a way of life that has no validity today, relives the invasion of uninvited guests in the earlier storm, in bitter contrast to her utter aloneness in this one. The thread of personalities that hold the pattern is her conflict with her young niece, who forces her out of her outmoded approach to life into a real world. There is a muted quality of suspended action in the present in strong contrast to the pace of memory in the past, with the motif of the storms accenting the drama.

Pub Date: Sept. 6, 1946

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Coward-McCann

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1946

Categories: FICTION