A Long Walk to Wimbledon [Paperback]

H.R.F. Keating (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Macmillan (1978)
• ASIN: B000OUWXZQ
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Share the gifts and the madness, October 22, 2000

By 

Cartimand (Hampshire, UK.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Long Walk to Wimbledon (Hardcover)

Having read so many post-apocalyptic sagas, it requires something rather special indeed to stand out above the rest. Keating's A Long Walk to Wimbledon is, quite simply, one of the very best of the genre. The painstaking wealth of detail crammed into the novel's 190 pages paint a stunningly vivid picture of our hero's trek across London's ruined landscape of the not-too-distant future. Anyone who knows London will revel in the thrill of recognition as familiar, but horribly changed, thoroughfares and landmarks are reached. I couldn't resist following Mark's journey through the metropolis on my London A-Z. The story's strongest feature however, is the sheer humanity (and frequent inhumanity) of the tragic players in a morality play of a world gone to hell. Pearls of poignancy and aching beauty shine out from wretched filth and squalor. Surprisingly, against so grim a background, Keating, the master story-teller, manages to wring a strong message of hope for the human spirit. A perfect bend of allegory and nerve-tingling action and suspense. Keating has created nothing short of a classic in this strongest candidate ever for a "have to read in one sitting" novel.