Customer Reviews

Thunder on the Left (Sun & Moon Classics)

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"If there were only one moonshiny night in each century, men would never be done talking of it. Old lying books would be consulted; in padded club chairs grizzled gentry whose grandfathers had witnessed it would prate of that milky perversion that once diluted the unmixed absolute of night. And those who had no vested gossip in the matter would proclaim it unlikely to recur, or impossible to have happened." Morley's novel is full of similar wonderful passages. It is also, metaphorically, the story of such a moonshiny night when Martin, the little boy who wanted to spy on adults to see if they were happy, appears as a boy in an adult's body. Things ensue at a leisurely (perhaps a little too leisurely) pace. While the writing at times is quite funny, the novel itself is full of sad whimsy. The novel asks, "What do we do to ourselves as we grow up?" Morley's novel, first published in the 1920's, is a wonderful book.

No, this is not a political tract, but a novel by the man whose most famous work of fiction was "Kitty Foyle," later made into the film which brought an Academy Award to Ginger Rogers. "Thunder on the Left" begins when a child is having a birthday party. His guests discuss the joys of being young as compared with the nature of becoming an adult. The story then leaps several decades, to the same setting at a time when all the characters are grownups, except for the one who has stayed a boy. Morley may seem in certain ways to be an old fashioned author. This is a story that will never be irrelevant to the lives of all of us, however, and it is a marvelous book to read more than once. What a good idea for Sun & Moon Classics to publish it again after all these years in the darkest of the library stacks.

Thunder on the Left has nothing to do with the contemporary, suspenseful primary elections; the erudite Christopher Morley's literary title makes reference to a Roman fancy that when men heard thunder on the left the gods had something of importance to impart to mankind. Thunder on the Left (1925) is a fantasy novel involving a shift in time, a young boy's refusal to age, and a disturbingly ambiguous look at adult life.

We first view the mysterious world of adults from the perspective of young children and maturing adolescents attending a birthday party for Martin. Subsequent chapters shift forward in time at which the children are now adults, and have through coincidence gathered again at the same locale, a large, rustic house somewhere in New England. One uninvited guest, a rather inexplicably naïve artist, is gradually exposed to the reader as none other than the young Martin, somehow transported into adulthood and yet still a child in his perspective and outlook.

The world of adults is uncomfortable. We encounter infidelity, disappointment, and ennui. And yet, Morley manages to avoid too much seriousness. Martin's naivety offers a whimsical balance that transforms this potentially grave analysis into a fascinating story, one that the reader will long remember.

Christopher Morley's best novels, including The Haunted Bookshop, Parnassus on Wheels, and Thunder on the Left, have remained popular for their intriguing perspectives, their ability to engage the readers, and for their whimsical seriousness.

My copy of Thunder on the Left was published by Sun & Moon Press, Los Angeles, in 1995.

Just read Thunder on the Left last night, thank God for quality reprint edition. The suggestions of affairs, growth/loss and the child in each adult are fairly universal notions that Morley treats with style. No, not stylized, but with style. Suggestions of emotions force the reader to work and think throughout this story of the ultimate childrens' party. Who is really a child and who is really an adult? Are emotions mere toys or the things we close our closet doors to at night? When the reader must focus on himself instead of the light and breezy style of a summer read, then we are drawn into the stories of christopher morley, bravo, and when can we see Johnny Mistletoe on a booklist somewhere, anyone?

THUNDER ON THE LEFT by Christopher Morley, American author, poet, journalist, is a delightful foray into a man's past, into the never-never land of one's psychic geography. The story captures the quaintness of American life with all its quirks and indecisiveness. The philosophical underpinning, of who we really are, when we are mature, etc., will keep you enthralled for hours at a time. Morely had a deep sense of human nature--of spiritual realities--that comes through every word, every line. Good reading!