A seacoast, a village, summer in Wales—what are they made of? One day the sea clambers among the rocks like children at play, gulls drift on the air, the ancient houses are inhabited by people in whose lilting speech myths still live. The next day rocks and gnarled trees taunt a black wind, houses are dark with suspicion, the people brandish their poverty, fanaticism, and studied discourtesies. These are not contrasts, but contradictions. With this vivid novel Norman Thomas makes his debut. Like his hero, he is a young Californian with a welsh background; and his skill in adapting his speech and mythology of Wales inevitably suggests comparison with that other Thomas, Dylan (who was no relation). If the two resemble one another, however, it is only as collateral descendants of a common literary ancestor. Norman Thomas speaks in his own voice in this superbly-written novel, a voice that will sound in the reader’s ear long after the book has ended.
