One never asks is it a novel, wrote John Cheever in 1977. One asks is it interesting. Definitely not a novel whatever its publishers say but definitely very interesting is Jack Hilton's 1935 book Caliban Shrieks, equal parts autobiography, political screed and artful rant, now reissued in hardback by Vintage Classics and lauded last week as a lost literary masterpiece in the New Yorker.
There are strong words for everyone from 'book socialists' to 'the rentier class' The first half of the book, in short chapters, gives a lurid account of growing up, from schooldays to part-time work to soldiering, where you can live to be 90 if not shot. Hilton is good at encapsulating the wreckage that the first world war made of British society.
[
Collection
]
[
|
...
]