A Postillion Struck By Lightning (2005) - Plot & Excerpts
The second half of this really made the whole book for me. All that idyllic nostalgia of the first half was very well but it was vaguely disturbing me how absent Dirk himself was in the narrative, and when he did allow himself to appear was with some fairly alarming sinister negativity.But the Anthracite Years was where I really started to find this fascinating, perhaps because I always appreciate a realistic awakening to blissful ignorance. And watching this version of Dirk being pulled into awareness was an excellent journey, even if it traumatised me (and clearly him) severely at one point.No doubt my enjoyment of the second half also found itself in the depiction of London during the war. I always am utterly enthralled by accounts of how the ordinary people went about their lives in the shadow of air raids and Nazism. This particular depiction of theatre life was a totally unexpected side I had never considered and am so glad I now know.Inasmuch you can ever really believe anything Dirk writes. *eyes suspiciously* I kept thinking what a perfect example of creative non-fiction he is, the way he employs so much creative fictive techniques of description and imagery.But especially I liked how subtle and slowly the structure of the entire book revealed itself, with its deliberate lacunae, dipping in and out of his life and all to ultimately bear out the conceit of the title. How marvellously clever of our Dirk. <3
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