Kenneth Martin (1) (1939–)
Auteur van Aubade
Voor andere auteurs genaamd Kenneth Martin, zie de verduidelijkingspagina.
Werken van Kenneth Martin
Tagged
Algemene kennis
- Geboortedatum
- 1939
- Geslacht
- male
- Nationaliteit
- USA (naturalized)
UK (birth) - Geboorteplaats
- Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
Leden
Besprekingen
Lijsten
Statistieken
- Werken
- 5
- Leden
- 142
- Populariteit
- #144,865
- Waardering
- 3.5
- Besprekingen
- 2
- ISBNs
- 15
From a strictly literary point of view it would be very easy to pick Aubade to pieces but that, I think, would be to miss the point in a big way. For all its stylistic naivety and stilted dialogue it possesses a sometimes uncomfortable emotional honesty that could only have come from a young author writing truthfully about his own experience. Had Martin waited to recollect his youthful experience in tranquility the result might have been more polished but, I expect, would have lacked the raw edge which is such a vital part of this book.
I was genuinely moved, not so much perhaps by the writing itself, as the fact that a working-class gay teenager in the viciously homophobic Britain of the 1950s had the courage and self-belief to write it at all. This might not be a literary response but it is a real one and, whatever its shortcomings as fiction or literature, I expect this novel will stay with me long after I have forgotten many much more formally skilled ones. Sometimes what touches the heart has less to do with how ‘well written’ something is (always a value judgement, of course, and by no means necessarily a permanently enduring one) as what the writer is saying and when s/he wrote the book and why. These things are not irrelevant and can actually deepen our understanding and appreciation of a piece of writing. This is certainly the case here and I recommend the 1989 GMP edition as it contains a long and fascinating autobiographical introduction by the author.
Aubade is no masterpiece but deserves to be known by anyone interested in the history of gay literature.… (meer)