A Kind Man by Susan Hill - Revision history

Sue at 12:08, 7 October 2020

2020-10-07T12:08:36Z

Sue at 13:55, 17 March 2018

2018-03-17T13:55:32Z

Sue at 15:06, 26 January 2015

2015-01-26T15:06:12Z

Sue at 13:21, 9 January 2012

2012-01-09T13:21:23Z

Sue at 13:17, 9 January 2012

2012-01-09T13:17:03Z

Sue: Created page with "{{infobox |title=A Kind Man |author=Susan Hill |reviewer=John Lloyd |genre=General Fiction |rating=4.5 |buy=Yes |borrow=Yes |isbn=9780099555445 |paperback=0099555441 |hardback..."

2012-01-09T13:16:44Z

Created page with "{{infobox |title=A Kind Man |author=Susan Hill |reviewer=John Lloyd |genre=General Fiction |rating=4.5 |buy=Yes |borrow=Yes |isbn=9780099555445 |paperback=0099555441 |hardback..."

New review

{{infobox
|title=A Kind Man
|author=Susan Hill
|reviewer=John Lloyd
|genre=General Fiction
|rating=4.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=9780099555445
|paperback=0099555441
|hardback=0701185910
|audiobook=
|ebook=0701185910
|pages=224
|publisher=Vintage
|date=January 2012
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555441</amazonuk>
|amazonus=<amazonus>0099555441</amazonus>
|website=
|video=
|summary=A fascinating short novel about a man with a lucky gift, and his wife, who suffers ups and downs in life a bit more severely.
}}
Meet Eve, and her husband, the title character, Tommy. She's at a bit of a sticky wicket in life, for however much they want a baby, her sister and his feckless husband churn out son after son after son, and go no lengths at all to love them. So when Eve and Tommy do at last have a child, it's a tragedy for it to die when only three years old. But in this plot, which you'll thank me for not going into further, there will be a lot more swings and roundabouts, of torment and ecstasy, doldrums and delights, hell and heaven, to come.

I'm giving little away, for I certainly guessed what the errand over the hill was that Eve takes religiously three times a year. (Their home is one of six rustic cottages on the edge of an industrial town, with a glowing peak of landscape the focus point for miles around.) The child's death is an earlyish beat in the story. What follows it is a slightly peculiar, yet fascinating and quite dazzling little plot of strange happenings. If you're thinking we're in the realm of rural saga, of romance or domestic strife, think again.

[[:Category:Susan Hill|Susan Hill]] uses a style that is quite notable too. It's sort of a clipped, officious approach, that makes us aware this is a period piece, even if we never get told what period we're in. She slips just once and brings in a record player - certainly we're pre-TV ownership, and we seem to be in the west Midlands in the 1930s, perhaps. I could be way out in both time and space though. But that style, again - because it is less adorned than it could be, it marries to the plot to have what is not so much magical realism as magical matter-of-factuality.

The actuality in that bodge of a word shows we're in the real world, for her characters are so well evoked. Whatever happens here happens to real people. The dialogue is sprightly but realistic, and everything about the book conspires to make it a very enjoyable, intriguing short novel. It shows a craft to put the slightly unusual in such familiar, realistic surrounds - not so much so as in her most famous work, [[The Woman in Black by Susan Hill|The Woman in Black]], but with almost as much quality.

I must thank the publishers for my review copy.

For more realistically odd rural happenings, I can't recommend [[Blackmoor by Edward Hogan]] enough.

{{amazontext|amazon=0099555441}} {{waterstonestext|waterstones=8557191}}

{{commenthead}}

[[Category:Literary Fiction]]

@@ Line 25: / Line 25: @@
 The actuality in that bodge of a word shows we're in the real world, for her characters are so well evoked.  Whatever happens here happens to real people.  The dialogue is sprightly but realistic, and everything about the book conspires to make it a very enjoyable, intriguing short novel.  It shows a craft to put the slightly unusual in such familiar, realistic surrounds - not so much so as in her most famous work, [[The Woman in Black by Susan Hill|The Woman in Black]], but with almost as much quality.
-I must thank the publishers for my review copy.
+I must thank the publishers for my review copy.  We also have a review of Hill's [[The Beacon by Susan Hill|The Beacon]].
 For more realistically odd rural happenings, I can't recommend [[Blackmoor by Edward Hogan]] enough.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{infobox
+{{infobox1
 |title=A Kind Man
 |sort=Kind Man
@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 |publisher=Vintage
 |date=January 2012
 |summary=A fascinating short novel about a man with a lucky gift, and his wife, who suffers ups and downs in life a bit more severely.
 }}
 Meet Eve, and her husband, the title character, Tommy.  She's at a bit of a sticky wicket in life, for however much they want a baby, her sister and his feckless husband churn out son after son after son, and go no lengths at all to love them.  So when Eve and Tommy do at last have a child, it's a tragedy for it to die when only three years old.  But in this plot, which you'll thank me for not going into further, there will be a lot more swings and roundabouts, of torment and ecstasy, doldrums and delights, hell and heaven, to come.

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 |borrow=Yes
 |isbn=9780099555445
 |pages=224
 |publisher=Vintage
@@ Line 34: / Line 30: @@
 For more realistically odd rural happenings, I can't recommend [[Blackmoor by Edward Hogan]] enough.
-{{amazontext|amazon=0099555441}} {{waterstonestext|waterstones=8557191}}
+{{amazontext|amazon=0099555441}}
 {{commenthead}}
 [[Category:Literary Fiction]]

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 |date=January 2012
 |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555441</amazonuk>
-|amazonus=<amazonus>0099555441</amazonus>
+|amazonus=<amazonus>0701185910</amazonus>
 |website=
 |video=