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Chargement... Stand Before Your God: An American Schoolboy in England (1993)par Paul Watkins
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. Watkins is a fantastic writer. This is a memoir of his years as an American boy attending the Brittish schools, Dragon and Eton. His parents were English and sent him to give him all the advantages they were not able to have. He becomes something of a mid-atlantic person, neither American in England or English in America. What is most remarkable is the style of writing. There is no looking back aspect, it feels as if a chikd of the age he is at the time is writing it. He captures a feel of each place through his bits of rememberances. A truly fascinating read. If you are going to compare yourself to A Separate Peace, and This Boy's Life, you'd better be prepared to deliver the goods. This book fails to live up to expectations so highly set. So, okay, it wasn't awful, and in moments you can really see how this guy could be a great writer. BUT, this memoir is amateurish -- I was shocked to find that he's published a bunch of books (although any hack who gives good plot can get published these days, I guess). And I suppose, with a memoir, you go to war with the material you have (hey, it would be so much more awesome if I had gone to Westminster instead of Eton!) But nonetheless, it disappoints. Anyone who has spent time in a boarding school will relate to certain episodes recounted in this book. I know I did! Paul Watkins is a gifted writer, and his pared-down prose (somebody compared his style to Hemingway) provides a clarity to reminiscences that could so easily have become golden-tinged nostalgia. Instead, the book is remarkably unsentimental while being life-affirming. Eton and the Dragon School are never idealised or demonised - their existence is just a fact of life for the young Watkins as he graduates through the strange all-male world of private English education. Very easy to read. I demolished the book in under two days. The book opens as a very young boy is suddenly seemingly abandoned by his father in a house with a group of other boys and a housemaster. A memoir of growing up in English boys' schools, the narrative is both sincere and heartwarming. The author, Paul Watkins, shares his experiences as a young American among the, mostly, young British boys in two schools, The Dragon School and, later, Eton. The memoir is filled with various memories including both friendships and fun. There are typical schoolboy activities, however these are often punctuated by the harsh reality of being an outsider in a system with very old, slowly changing, traditions. The schools became, for Paul, places where "You had to stand before your God and commit." Throughout the memoir Paul's relationship with his father is a motif that develops to a climax in his father's death; an event that leads to an epiphany for Paul that helps define his life and career as a writer. Written with lucid prose and a pleasant expository style this is an excellent read; ultimately presenting an uplifting message. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
In this enthralling and sometimes harrowing memoir, the acclaimed author of The Promise of Light gives us a masterly companion to such classics as Brideshead Revisited and A Separate Peace. At the age of seven, Paul Watkins was roughly transplanted from his home in Rhode Island to England's Dragon School. He was greeted by a delegation of bullies who, in time, would become his friends and whose rules would become his own. For at Dragon, and later at Eton, "there was no middle ground. You could not go here and come out not caring one way or the other. You had to stand before your God and commit." Here are the masters who paddle boys for small infractions and then offer them sweets; the seniors who pamper pretty favorites and subject all others to humiliating servitude; the deep friendships and sudden, devastating betrayals. Above all, here is the exhilaration of a boy discovering own capacities for learning and creativity, in a book that conveys with astonishing insight the pangs of growing up. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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I found this book to be absolutely fascinating. It has been compared to A SEPARATE PEACE, but I was reminded of another more obscure book, a memoir by Englishman John Cornwell called SEMINARY BOY. I also thought of a literary memoir by another alumnus of the Dragon School, Pico Iyer, and his book about a life-long fascination with author Graham Greene, THE MAN WITHIN MY HEAD. And I thought again of those two Watkins novels - NIGHT OVER DAY OVER NIGHT and CALM AT SUNSET CALM AT DAWN - and remembered enjoying both very much. Watkins is simply a born storyteller, and he tells his own story with eloquence and style. I loved this book. Thanks again to writer Brian Payton for telling me about it. HIGHLY recommended. ( )