Subject: a terrific writer dies
From: Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Date: Thu Mar 30 2000 - 02:09:59 EST
Since Lucy & I appear to be the only Brits ever to visit
this remote corner of the Empire, we can hardly expect
you blokes with the funny painted faces & head feathers
to have heard of Anthony Powell. Even on the day after
his death at the age of 94.
Still, never too late to learn.
Let me commend him to you. He's being hailed over here,
quite rightly, as one of the giants among 20th century
English writers. His main work was the 12 volume
'Dance to the Music of Time' - a hilarious tapestry
of the English upper/military/bohemian classes between
the Twenties & Sixties (70s?). As well, he wrote a lot
of entertaining book reviews & published a journal covering
15 years in which his friendships & enmities with all
the best & worst people in England are unindulgently
narrated.
If you like complicated English with lots of droll images
& obscure words (& obviously many of you do) you'll like
Powell. He has a distinct edge over JDS in being very, very
FUNNY. Some of the culture & society he writes about will
seem a little distant from Boulder - but if you can make
the effort for a Hun like Rilke you can damn well do
the same for Tony Powell. (Start now exhibiting you posh
credentials by pronouncing it 'Pole'.)
In the carnival of animals, if JDS is a performing galago,
then Powell is a giraffe: improbable, civilised, comical
& really, truly elegant.
(I've just thought of one bananafish who'll know all about
Powell & absolutely loathe him. The Bishop.)
Scottie B.
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