THIRTY YEARS: Collected Short Works

by John P. Marquand ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1954

This is a motley collection of pieces,- nostalgic fragments, more or less formal essays, good bits of reportage, and short stories -- a thirty year crop, one assumes from the title. Even the short stories have a distinct flavor of personal recall, of flashbacks to experiences and interpretations of incidents tying in with school and college days. One can sense the Marquand of H.M. Pulham Esq and- in the oblique handling of ""the family"" in several stories,- the Marquand of Wickford Point. Possibly this gives the stories more substance than they actually possess, though Marquand's gift for capturing a sense of recognition, of the familiar, is here as it is in his novels. The non fiction pieces are of varying interest, and with few exceptions, are not Marquand at his best. They seem to have been written for an occasion- reading more like speeches than special articles in some cases. But there are bits of evocative writing, as in the one on Boston (The New Look Reaches Boston) and the one entitled Federalist Newburyport I'd suggest for the flavor of the whole, that you sample The End Game and Beginning Now.

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1954

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1954

Categories: FICTION