Customer Reviews

In Youth Is Pleasure

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

To read all of Welch's writing is to know almost everything about him. Everything he wrote was drawn out by deep introspection after a road accident that left him maimed at 20 and suffering till his death at 33 years of age. I recommend reading Maiden Voyage first, then In Youth is Pleasure. This will give you context. His writing style is so simple and amazing. His other novels are all first person and I believe he writes better in that vein. But as a third person novel, this work is better than novels by many other writers who wrote with the intention of being a writer.

This book is an account of a walking tour of England by a young man. Mostly, it's full of wry and critical descriptions of the people he encounters. There are odd aunts, strange villagers, haunting fellow hostel guests. Welch himself was a visual artist by training. He was a promising, public school educated young man when he had a crippling bicycle accident. His writing consistently describes athletic situations: swimming, skiing, bicycling. Because he wrote so little, though, I'm not certain how important this was to him. As I read, I felt I was in the company of Paul Theroux. Then I'd feel it was Graham Greene or DH Lawrence. He's such a craftsman of the written word. His skills equal those of the other writers I'm mentioning here. However, it's a shame to compare him to these writers. He simply didn't leave enough writing behind him. Welch feels very accessible. Though his writing has become obscure to us, there is no feeling that he is writing in an obscure way. You have an oppurtunity to be the first one on your block to get to know Welch. The fun part is that nobody has to know just how easy Welch is to read.

In this criminally underappreciated book a mundane summer break from school is transformed with extraordinary mastery into an engrossing, captivating story about a time in life that passes by with unfortunate quickness. This isn't a coming of age story, but rather a portrayal of what it's like to be at that transitional phase - when we still experience the world with the innocence and wonderment of a child, with adult awareness but before it exercises dominance. Somehow Denton managed to preserve this perspective well enough into adulthood to be able to accurately and authoritatively express the actual experience of youth: the thoughts, and imaginings, daydreams, insecurity and most impressively, the feeling, of being 15. And he does in it a manner that separates good writers from great ones. With restraint.

Denton Welch writes about a fifteen year old boy's summer holiday around 1930 spent with his father and two older brothers, the boy's name in the book is Orvil, although this is in fact basically autobiographical.

The main part of Orvil's holiday is spent in a Surrey at a hotel near the River Thames, and while his two older brothers and at times some of their friends are there Orvil spends much of his time in his own company - apart from a few days spent with a school friend and his family in Hastings. Orvil is a inquisitive and adventurous boy with a vivid imagination, and people and places he sees conjure in his mind fascinating scenarios. He is especially taken by the sight of a man with two younger boys he sees rowing on the river, and sets out to spy on them, later he will encounter the man alone and spend some time with him, a curios meeting. This along with a number of other events clearly hint at Orvil's (Denton's) unmentioned sexual proclivities.

What makes this a fascinating account is the unusual charm and honesty of the young boy. A boy with a fascination for small antique objects, no matter if they are damaged, in fact he is happy to find such for it means he is more likely to be able to afford them, and even in such matters as this his honesty is apparent, for it is clearly the object for its own sake that appeals rather than the object as thing of monetary value or for show. He is honest too in his analysis of the boy's thinking, often angry on the inside with others, or selfish in his reasoning, but rarely openly displaying such - although there are times when this aspect gets the better of him and he lashes out.

For a fifteen year old boy he is remarkably sensitive and visually aware or observant. In addition to his liking for small objects he has a great appreciation for architecture, especially older buildings, and is quite knowledgeable about such, and not without his own views either.

This is a most charming and beautifully written account about a young, somewhat tortured yet creative boy, an individual who does not and conform and is often at odds with those around him. The account concludes with his eventual return to school (for what in fact will be the last time), and there is a lovely incident in which Ben, his older brother by two years, who is also returning with him on the train to their school when seeing Orvil being taken advantage of unhesitatingly and very forcibly comes to his rescue - a moving conclusion to a delightful book.

In Youth Is Pleasure is as wonderful a title as it is a read. It's been a while since I've been so immediately drawn into a book. Denton Welch wickedly catapulted me into the lives his richly vivid characters... a joy.

I certainly did see what some of the other reviewers saw when they commented on the amazing powers of perception in this novel but the development and believability of the characters was simply not there. I realize it may be uncool to say that the novel lacked enough plot and the sheer ability to see and feel what the protagonist sees and feels ought to be enough. It just wasn't. Nothing happened, no one grew, no one changed, no one truly impacted upon anyone else. The novel felt empty to me and I just could not have cared less about it.

I just could not get into this novel. It seemed to me to be very shallow and did not delve into the characters beyond a physical context. The main character remained below a murky surface as I found myself waiting for his true nature to emerge. It washowever an easy read and perhaps a nice piece to read if you want something simple and unengaging.