William Trevor continues to lead the pack as my favourite living author throughout the world. His frugal use of the most precise language leaves a reader gasping at times, and he is an unparallelled master tragedian. Here, he has actually crafted a fairly humourous, if naughty, tale of a teenage "tearaway," as he himself might call the lad. Trevor imbues this lonesome council lad with some rather astonishing powers of perception that, once put to work with the singlemindedness reserved solely for what one really really wants, results in a domino effect of despair and destruction that washes over a small, raw, seaside Southern UK town. It remains funny throughout, however, a testament not only to Trevor's many gifts as a story-teller of genius and power but to his love for his flawed characters and thier powers of endurance.
Clever but strange and sour tale of a deprived boy living in a crummy old seaside town, whose daydreams focus on his glorious appearances as a comedian on 'Opportunity Knocks'. He divides his time between watching the box in his absent mum's council flat, and badgering the townspeople, telling them about the darkly comic act which he hopes will win him the annual fete's talent competition, and finally blackmailing them into supplying him with the necessary sets and costumes! Don't be misled by the quaint little painting on the cover of the old British edition - this is an awful story, all about neglect, failure and delusion, though the curiously flat and unsubtle prose make it not quite as devastating as it really should have been.
