Bright Day [Hardcover]

j.b. priestley (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: The Reprint Society; First Edition edition (1948)
• ASIN: B001H00CDC
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Priestley's Best Story?, April 25, 2005

By 

John Lonergan (Melbourne, Victoria Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bright Day (Phoenix fiction) (Hardcover)

I added that question mark as an afterthought.
Bright Day is certainly my favorite Priestley story. It has all his signature elements - wonderful play with time, normal people doing normal things in interesting ways, and of course his beloved Bruddersford.
It's a novel, but there seems to be a lot of Priestley in it. Gregory Dawson, the hero, is a writer (movies) who takes a room at a seaside hotel to finsih writing a screenplay. His early life was spent in a wool office in Bruddersford , where he worked as hard as he needed to, and plotted his escape to a brighter world.
Now, aged 50, and working on his screenplay at The Royal Ocean Hotel, that long-forgotten past makes an unexpected appearance. He then moves between the Bruddersford of his youth and the tensions of the present, with (for me anyway) some surprising twists and revelations.
I like the characters, and the way in particular that Priestley creates the Alingtons as a family who have so much...or seem to.
The plot is good without being great; it's the people who make the story as much as it is what they do.
I wonder if he ever thought of it as a play; I think it could have worked.
Much shorter than The Good Companions and Angel Pavement, Bright Day is readable and enjoyable.Well worth tracking down.