A Critical Look at Golding's Novels - Book Review

William Golding: A Critical Study of the Novels. Mark Kinkead-Weekes and Ian Gregor. Faber and Faber. 16.99 [pounds sterling] p. b. 412 pages. ISBN 0-571-21564-5.

It is now a decade since William Golding's sudden death from heart failure whilst working on his last novel, The Double Tongue. Reaction in the press was generally of intense respect: at eighty-one his was a long and ultimately laurelled literary career. With such classics as Lord of the Flies and Rites of Passage, he was, in the view of many, an unquestionable icon. The 1970s had, however, seen a dip in his critical standing, and the academic team of Mark Kinkead-Weekes and Ian Gregor were among the few scholars who promoted his particular brand of challenging fiction during that period.

The amount of critical response to all of Golding's work now is, needless to say, impressive. In the decade since his death, however, it has become increasingly apparent that there is no 'definitive work' on Golding, no key collection of essays, or critical biography. The reasons for this are two-fold. Firstly, his long-time publishers, Faber and Faber, have discouraged biographical interest because Golding's daughter, Judy Carver, is presently editing his dream journals, as well as working on a personal memoir. Secondly, Golding himself fought shy of offering definite readings of his work. This was partly because moral and intellectual polyphony was at the heart of his project. So many of his novels seek to subvert any single, overriding world-view, whilst stripping his characters bare to reveal writhing mixes of good and evil.

Also, he felt in earlier years hounded by certain critics (possibly the inspiration for The Paper Men). Few scholars and critics were allowed to enter Golding's sphere. Two exceptions were Mark Kinkead-Weekes and Ian Gregor, who produced a critical study of the first five novels in 1967. In Mr Kinkead-Weekes' introduction to the new and enlarged edition, he remembers the friendship he and Ian Gregor began with the Goldings, acknowledging it was 'more occasional than close', and that the study was not 'an authorized account', although they can only have been strengthened in at least some of their views through their contact with Golding.

Ian Gregor has now, sadly, died, and Mark Kinkead-Weekes has undertaken the task of expanding their book single-handedly, adding chapters on the novels from The Pyramid onwards. It is a thorough analysis of the works, addressing key concepts in Golding analysis: the 'Perspectives' chapter has some fascinating comments on the terms 'history', 'fable', and 'myth', whilst the final chapter opens up the issues of vision and visual perception. Golding's challenge to any definite sense of comprehension through superficial (visual) perception is inextricably entwined with his writing's own visual aspects.

The authors' obviously deep and abiding love for Golding's work leads to a slightly pedestrian tone at times, a sense in which every last single detail must be covered in a rolling litany of narrative points and critical comments. Nevertheless, this study offers many useful and thought-provoking ideas on the novels, always acknowledging how Golding himself sought to confound anything resembling a conventional, unified reading. The biographical sketch provided by Mrs. Carver is rigorously factual and sequential, offering the first standard account of Golding's life (at fifteen pages, sadly rather short). Its inclusion is welcome for those who would gratefully read a full biography. It also places tacit approval upon the work of Messrs. Kinkead-Weekes and Gregor. This is the closest we shall see to a 'definitive work', at least until the publication of Golding's letters, dream journals, and the memoir, which, one hopes, will be in the near future. Until then, those who wish to see beneath the thrilling, beguiling surfaces of Golding's fiction have a most effective tool in this critical study.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Contemporary Review Company Ltd.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group