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Wednesday, December 12, 2012

I'LL NEVER BE YOUNG AGAIN by DAPHNE DU MAURIER


A book which I had never heard of before. First published in 1932 it has a slightly old fashioned feel to it as well.  We have Dick - young, impetuous and the son of a very famous writer. The father seems cold and indifferent and very distant. Mother follows father's instructions and Dick is always left out in the cold. He longs for recognition and affection but does not get it from his parents. After a falling out, he leaves home and stays away from home for years.  Dick when he leaves home is desperate and wants to end it all, but at the back of his mind is always the hope that some good Samaritan will come along and save him in the nick of time.

This does happen and Jake becomes the pivot of Dick's life. The story continues with adventures on the high seas, adventures in Scandinavia ending with a tragedy and then his meeting a young American woman and life changes once more. This is not a happily ever after story anyway.

The story portrays Dick as selfish and self centred. Reading the novel one does not have any sympathy for the young man and in fact one can become a bit self righteous saying "serves him right"!  At the beginning of the story you can always put it down to the workings of an unmatured youngster but as the story unravels you realize you are dealing with a totally selfish man.

I've read a host of Du Maurier and found this totally strange. Strange and different.

9 comments:

  1. I have not heard of this book before. Interesting that the main character this time is male! She does so well with female characters.

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  2. i haven't heard of this one either. Guess it was not one of her more popular ones. Seems that we hear only of popular titles and less so of the others. perhaps there is a good reason behind that. I still have one or two of Ms. De]u Maurier's books on my shelf. I do think I should look her up and see what else she wrote that I don't know of.

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  3. I'd never heard of this title either but I'm glad to learn more about Du Maurier's work beyond Rebecca.

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  4. I have to say that I've never heard of this one either! I definitely have to be in the right mood to deal with selfish characters but I assume that du Maurier does a good job of writing him so I'll still keep my eye out for this one!

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  5. I have got this on my shelf. I'm a little worried now that you said it's strange....

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  6. I wonder what I would think of this one.

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  7. I think I could like this one. One to think about, I don't mind a bit of strange now and then.

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  8. I read this a few years ago and enjoyed it, though it is very different to most of her other novels. I agree that Dick is a very selfish and unsympathetic character - I remember being really irritated by him!

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  9. I've never heard of this one. I love duMaurier's Rebecca so I really should pick up more of her books, although I'm not sure I'm up for this one.

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