The Slaves of Solitude (New York Review Books Classics)

ISBN: 1590172205

Author: Hamilton, Patrick

Condition: New

Gritty, real, tough, and sardonic. -Nick Hornby, author of Funny GirlFabulously poignant. -Sarah Waters, author of FingersmithAs World War II drags on, the lonely Miss Roach flees London for the dull but ostensible safety of a suburban boarding house in this pitch-perfect comedy about the passions and tensions of war (The Independent).England in the middle of World War II, a war that seems fated to go on forever, a war that has become a way of life. Heroic resistance is old hat. Everything is in short supply, and tempers are even shorter. Overwhelmed by the terrors and rigors of the Blitz, middle-aged Miss Roach has retreated to the relative safety and stupefying boredom of the suburban town of Thames Lockdon, where she rents a room in a boarding house run by Mrs. Payne.There the savvy, sensible, decent, but all-too-meek Miss Roach endures the dinner-table interrogations of Mr. Thwaites and seeks to relieve her solitude by going out drinking and necking with a wayward American lieutenant. Life is almost bearable until Vicki Kugelmann, a seeming friend, moves into the adjacent room. Thats when Miss Roachs troubles really begin.Recounting an epic battle of wills in the claustrophobic confines of the boarding house, Patrick Hamiltons The Slaves of Solitude, with a delightfully improbable heroine, is one of the finest and funniest books ever written about the trials of a lonely heart.