This is a rather strange book to add to my Influences section, as I’ve only just finished it for the first time, but I can’t believe I haven’t pick it up before (I loved Goodbye to Berlin) and I suspect if I’d read it when I was younger, while it would certainly have influenced me, I wouldn’t have been old enough to truly appreciate it. I’ve seen the film but can barely remember anything about that, and it is the words and style themselves that make this a work of genius.
It is amazing to think this was published in the early sixties, and begun in the early fifties, as, aside from some terminology that is no longer acceptable, it could almost have been written for today’s world, with some of the insights, philosophy of labels and perceptions amazingly prescient. Stylistically it borrows from numerous places (and I see the wonderful echo of his acquaintance Dylan Thomas in there too) but the feel of the text is so wonderfully modern, even compared to much which has been written since. I won’t detail the plot (you can find that elsewhere) but the examination of ageing and identity, simultaneous acceptance and a fierce opposition to life as it goes on around us, and the little details (who doesn’t have a chauffeur persona who takes care of the mechanics as your mind is elsewhere while driving?) make this a perfect short novel for me, one of the finest I have ever read I’d venture to opinion.
So why ‘Influences’? Because many of the thoughts and viewpoints have been, and I’m certain this will be on my writing in the future.
Stay safe,
Kit