The Croquet Player

Author - H. G. Wells ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Library Binding Book item from Telegraph Books was reviewed on 6-Nov-2008.

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1) Library Binding Book The Croquet Player by Telegraph Books. H.G. Wells was one of those writers who could only be counted as too good for the Nobel Prize, just like James Joyce or Tolstoy or Proust. In ´The Croquet Player´ he has not only produced his best book but one of the greatest books ever written.

I would rather not reveal details of the story. It will suffice to say that it concerns the origins of human nature, or rather, of human brutality, selfishness, greed. (In fact, I could hardly reveal any details of the story, since the last chapter negates the entire book!)

What tells it apart from so many treatises on human nature and the origins of evil is that it is narrated by an altogether down-to-earth bloke, the eponimous croquet player, which gives it an even sharper feeling of reality and foreboding. Nothing wrong or criminal actually happens in the croquet player´s world, so to speak. And in the story he is told, the contours of evil are elusive: a dog beaten to death; a drunked parson beating up his wife; that dreadful fear and paranoia in a land that never was. That is what makes it ultimately so compelling. So mind-changing as ´Catcher in the rye´. So disquieting.

Jorge Luis Borges, the greatest of Argentinian writers, once made a list of the greatest books ever. In it he included ´The Croquet Player´, for reasons that you will find obvious once you read it. As all masterpieces, exactly why is it so good is not entirely explainable. Be warned, though: this book leaves a disquiet behind that can last for days, weeks, even months. Do not read it if you like your books harmless and cosy. Do not read it unless you are unable to agree with Borges: ´in here he [Wells] describes a degenerating society that could be London or Buenos Aires and the guilty ones, my friend, are you and I.´¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 4-Dec-2008, 08976095149780897609517, 140-8

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