Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Felicia's Journey by William Trevor, Simon Prebble ISBN: 0-7887-0323-4 Publisher: Recorded Books Pub. Date: November, 1999 Format: Audio Cassette List Price(USD): $49.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.9 (40 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Chilling Portrait of a Deranged Psyche
Comment: William Trevor's true genius lies within the short story, however, in Felicia's Journey he proves the versatility of his skills. Barely eighteen, the young Irish girl named Felicia discovers she is pregnant after a summer romance with Johnny, a young man from England. Johnny returns to England not knowing of Felicia's condition, and he fails to leave her a way to contact him when he goes. To Johnny the romance with Felicia was a fling, but to Felicia it was real love. Shunned by her family and distraught over how to handle the pregnancy, Felicia takes off to England alone in search of Johnny hoping that he will help her. Lost, frightened, and without money in England, Felicia is befriended by Mr. Hilditch, an overweight man in his fifties who offers to help her. The naive Felicia makes an unknowingly grave mistake by trusting Mr. Hilditch. Although he seems gentle and genuinely concerned, Mr. Hilditch is really a man suffering from psychosis who sees Felicia in a disturbing light.
The events that unfold as the "friendship" develops are chilling. Trevor, a master at displaying human behavior, does a fine job at taking the reader into the delusional mind of Mr. Hilditch. Felicia's vulnerabilities and blinded trust will make you want to shake some sense into her. The story provides plenty of twists and a surprising end. Once again, Trevor's rhythmic prose will move you, but this time in a dark and shocking manner.
Rating: 4
Summary: The mystery of the forgotten ones
Comment: This novel investigates the mystery of the forgotten ones of our modern society, those that wander the streets, seemingly lost. We encounter them in our cities daily and criticize their lack of ability to fit into society. Yet, as William Trevor explores in his novel Felicia's Journey, it is society that is unable to fit into or around these people's lives. In this way, the novel, usually described as Hitchcockian, is also reminiscent of Kafka. Trevor, like Kafka, puts society under a microscope and studies how its inability for flexibility creates outcasts of individuals who previously had a seemingly 'normal' life. This story follows the journey of two characters, whose paths intersect, Felicia and Mr. Hilditch. When Felicia finds herself pregnant, she sets out on a journey that takes her from her home in Ireland to a town in England looking for the father of her baby. She soon encounters Mr. Hilditch, who the reader senses has a mystery of his own which must be uncovered as the plot advances. While he is seemingly a regular caring older man who holds a successful job and maintains an appearance of normality in his life, the crossing of paths of these two characters soon uncovers his hidden life. With the oppositional circumstances of the two characters-Felicia is homeless and friendless in England, and Mr. Hilditch has always lived in the same town and home in which he was raised-Trevor investigates and juxtaposes the circumstances within society that lead to the loss of direction, and even the disheartening loss of soul. Trevor writes a truly thought-provoking novel that illustrates the delicacy of the journey of life.
Rating: 5
Summary: A master of the unadorned style . . .
Comment: There are only two real characters in this drama, narrated in Trevor's usual spare, sparse style that puts you into the heart of things. There's Felicia, a somewhat plain teenage girl from a depressed industrial town in the Irish Republic. She's the product of a convent school, but only on suffrance because her father tends the convent's gardens. She's inexperienced and naive and when Johnny Lysaght comes along and turns her head, her subsequent pregnancy is no surprise. And there's Mr. Hilditch, a fifty-something catering manager at a factory in the English Midlands, who lives by himself and fancies young girls, though he's very careful "not to shop near home," as he thinks of it. Felicia runs away from home in search of the absent Johnny, but she finds it's not easy even to survive, much less to locate an errant Irishman, in England. She's a bit suspicious of Hilditch when he tries to help her out, but he arranges things to reduce her options, and Felicia is suddenly in very great danger indeed. Trevor does a terrific job getting inside the head of a pleasant, mild-mannered psychopath, allowing the reader to gradually understand what makes him tick. He won the Whitbread Prize (again) for this novel and he deserved it.
 |
Title: The Hill Bachelors by William Trevor ISBN: 0141002174 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 02 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
 |
Title: After Rain by William Trevor ISBN: 0140258345 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1997 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
 |
Title: The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor ISBN: 014200331X Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 26 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: Death in Summer by William Trevor, William Trevor ISBN: 0140287825 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
 |
Title: Two Lives: Reading Turgenev and My House in Umbria by William Trevor ISBN: 0140153721 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: August, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
