Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru
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Disgrifiad Cymraeg / Welsh Description
Nofelig drasi-gomig ddisglair, lafar yn llawn troeon a chyda diweddglo teimladwy. Mae Vernon, ieithydd egsentrig yn ei wythdegau, sydd erioed wedi ysgrifennu llyfr, yn ceisio canfod ffordd o ysgrifennu hanes ei briodas hir gyda Hannah. O dan orchudd ei lais ffuantus, gorwedd stori o ffantasi llofruddiol, obsesiwn, nwyd ac edifeirwch.
Disgrifiad Saesneg / English Description
Octogenarian language geek Vernon, who's never written a book, tries to find a way to write the story of his long marriage to Hannah. Under the comic surface of Vernon's pompous voice hides a story of murderous fantasy, obsession, passion and regret. A verbally brilliant tragicomic short novel with some surprising twists and a moving denouement.
Manylion y cynnyrch / Product details
- ISBN 13
- 9781781726167
- Gwales Code
- gwales.com.9781781726167
- Gwerthwr / Vendor
- Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru
- Long Title
- Please
- Awdur / Author
- Meredith, Christopher
- Current Price ex VAT
- £9.99
- Current Price inc VAT
- £9.99
- Availability Status (EN)
- Available
- Availability Status (CY)
- Ar gael
- Dyddiad cyhoeddi / Publication Date
- 2021-04-08
- Cyhoeddwr / Publisher
- Seren
- Media Type (EN)
- Paperback / softback
- Media Type (CY)
- Clawr meddal
- Pages
- 176 pages
- Size
- 135 × 208 mm; depth 18 mm
- Language Code
- English
- Categori / Category
- CY: Nofelau a Storïau ar Gyfer Oedolion (yn Saesneg) | EN: Adult Fiction and Stories (in English)
- Is-gategori / Subcategory
- CY: Ffuglen Lenyddol a Chyffredinol (yn Saesneg) | EN: General and Literary Fiction (in English)
Bywgraffiad yr Awdur / Author Biography
Christopher Meredith is an award-winning novelist, poet and translator, the author of five novels, a volume of short stories and six collections of poetry. His groundbreaking first novel, Shifts, is regarded as a modern classic. He has broadcast on radio and TV and given readings and talks all round Britain as well as in the Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, France, Germany, Finland, Ireland, Slovenia and the USA. Born and brought up in Tredegar, he has been a steelworker, a schoolteacher and a university professor and now writes full time.
Adolygiad y Cyhoeddwr / Publisher Review
This is the fifth novel from the versatile poet, translator and storyteller Christopher Meredith. It follows his acclaimed short-story collection, Brief Lives , and was published simultaneously with his poetry collection, Still . It is a tour-de-force of wit and the relish for language but still reveals the whole of an anguished life. It is parodic, dark and surprisingly touching, especially in the final chapters. Vernon, the author/narrator (who constantly struggles with the difference he feels between telling and writing), is a man obsessed with and fascinated by language, its etymology and its grammar/glamour. This leads him into endless digressions on his own choice of words to tell his story, but the digressions often reveal more than he anticipated. Vernon, his wife Hannah and the other significant characters are all south Walian. Vernon’s written style gives no indication of this except where he quotes dialogue, and this is indicative of how much ‘Vernon the writer’ is a careful construct. Although the few words of Hannah are quoted and endlessly analysed, it is her pauses and her silence which characterise her, in contrast to Vernon’s addiction to words and – in a crucial scene – his logorrhoea. This is a story of love, passion, loss of love and – in a delicate examination of the word ‘care’ – perhaps its final return. Even for an autobiography, the writer is unusually self-centred. Few of the other characters are fully named (Vernon’s twin children are totally anonymous!), although Mr Crockett inspires Vernon to an exploration of ecclesiastic architectural terms. It is only through a conversation in the final section (and in his native register) that Vernon seems to gain an awareness of the reality of the lives of others. He muses at length on Hannah’s state of mind, but either her brevity or his loquacity prevents him from really understanding her. The abiding impression of and for Vernon is that of isolation. Vernon is at once comic and tragic, both consciously and unconsciously, and the subtlety of Meredith’s writing is a delight. Vernon’s professional life as a clerk in Personnel or Human Resources departments results in some of the most conscious comedy but, at the same time, he is aware that he is an agent of those who are ‘downsizing’ industries, destroying many careers and even lives. This process was the focus of Meredith’s first novel, Shifts , set in his native Tredegar in the late 1970s and drawing on his own early experience as a steelworker. That knowledge is a shadow behind Vernon’s ironic, rueful success as an executioner. The poet’s love of language and all its shades of meaning is both evident and parodied in this work. It is a story which is both told and concealed, with humour, pathos and an understanding of how lives are made and unmade by chance.
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