A Voice Through A Cloud [Paperback]

Denton Welch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 2004

A Voice through a Cloud is English novelist Denton Welch's moving account of his recovery from a bicycling accident that left him partially paralyzed at the age of 20. Espouser of picnics and bicycle rides, cataloger of exquisite textures, pitiless surgeon of affect and mores, and also a pretty good painter, Denton Welch has drawn fans as far removed from his world of English pastoralism as William Burroughs and Richard Hell. Characterized by Welch's mercilessly acute powers of observation, A Voice Through a Cloud is a tour-de-force of both rigorous, detached self-analysis and clear-eyed external description, as Welch lies in a hospital bed, struggling with his illness and his relationships with family and doctor. Completed as Welch was dying 13 years later from complications resulting from the accident, and first published in 1950, A Voice through a Cloud's pristine prose sparkles with gleaming surfaces, human motivations clearly perceived and a steadiness of tone and register. While In Youth Is Pleasure is probably Welch's best-loved book, and Maiden Voyage his most scandalous, A Voice through a Cloud is his masterpiece, containing his most accomplished writing.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Denton Welch is one of those mysterious writers who are always interesting. The more his world is reduced to a hospital room and a handful of human contacts, the more fascinating he becomes. It is the precision of his observations, the fierce but gentle strangeness of his personality or his love of nature that captivates the reader? Like Colette and Jean Rhys, Welch has the power to generate interest out of even the most meagre materials. He had this gift from the beginning but suffering and illness refined it into a white-hot flame." --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Denton Welch was born on 29 March 1915 in Shanghai, the youngest of three brothers. Welch was sent back to England to attend St Michael's prep school in Uckfield, and then Repton School, where his main achievements were in art. Soon after his sixteenth birthday he ran away from school. With his family's approval he enrolled at the Goldsmiths' School of Art in April 1933 to study painting. He showed great promise as an artist but in June 1935, while still a student, he was knocked off his bicycle by a motorist, severely damaging his spine and kidneys; for the rest of his life he was a semi-invalid. Welch settled in Kent, in a succession of rented flats and cottages. His final home was in the village of Crouch, where his faithful friend Eric Oliver cared for him until his premature death on 30 December 1948. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Exact Change (February 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1878972154
• ISBN-13: 978-1878972156
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #842,676 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pain so acute and soul-shattering it actually hurts to read., December 14, 2000

By 

John McCormack (Mahopac, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Voice Through A Cloud (Paperback)

The words are sharp,pointed, and heavy with utter despair; they leap off the page and slice your heart to bloody ribons . If you like " Catcher in the Rye " and my boy J.D Salinger give this a try. Also, oddly enough, Denton Welsh was William Burroughs (author of "Naked Lunch , freind of Jack Keruac and Allen Ginsburg ) greatest influence according to Burroughs himself though their books in style,content, and everything else are COMPLETELY different. What they do have in common is a feeling of universal damage and loss.. The sad music of humanity..And feelings of loneliness so absolute it may convince you the only authentic reality is pain.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Memoir of an appalling bicycle accident, February 16, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: A Voice Through A Cloud (Paperback)

Denton Welch was crippled in a bicycle accident when he was 19. This book recounts his experience of the accident and his long, slow struggle to recover. Although presented as fiction,all of Welch's work is closely autobiographical (although the names are changed). The opening of the book, which depicts the horror of serious injury, is unforgettable. The catheters, the sequence of operations, the excruciating pain and the loneliness of his convalesence, everything is described with almost uncanny accuracy. The later sections of the book, which are concerned with his slow- and partial- recovery are perhaps less succesful, and the reader's mind wanders. Here, he describes his relationships with his fellow patients, doctors and the nursing staff, and well as his occassional visitors (his mother was dead, and his father in China). A Voice Through A Cloud is undoubtedly Welch's darkest book- he wrote it as his condition once again was deterioating- and in the eyes of some, it is his masterpiece. Personally, I enjoyed his Journals more, and perhaps also Maiden Voyage, his first book. However, he is an under-rated writer, and I hope it will not be long before all his books are once again in print- this is the least he deserves.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The pain principle, August 5, 2004

By 

R. J MOSS (Alice Springs, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Voice Through A Cloud (Paperback)

Denton Welch writes directly from his physical being. Moments of epiphany and exaltation are consumed by momentous revulsion. It's a rare encounter, breathing an adjectival power and acute memory, as compelling as it is painful. His life-altering bike accident is related in such a way that the act of writing, the detailed reach of his vocabularly, enacts part of his recovery, the stable point of a dramatically oscillating, and untrustworthy world. An abiding image is that of his despair with his doctor, upon who he seems almost paranoically dependant. When the doctor shifts to another village, semingly out of reach, you can feel the pounding in the pages of Denton's heart.