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Dylan Thomas tells stories of his childhood in Wales, piling on the sights and smells and sounds experienced by one rough-and-tumble Welsh lad with a miraculous sense of wonder.."If it could only just, if it could only just," your lips said again and again as you scooped, in the hob-hot sand, dungeons, garages, torture-chambers, train tunnels, arsenals, hangars for zeppelins, witches' kitchens, vampires' parlours, smugglers' cellars, trolls' grog-shops, sewers, under the ponderous and cracking castle, "If it could only just be like this for ever and ever amen." August Monday all over the earth, from Mumbles where the aunties grew like ladies on a seaside tree to brown, bear-hugging Henty-land and the turtled Ballantyne Islands."Could donkeys go on the ice?""Only if they got snowshoes."We snowshoed a meek, complaining donkey and galloped him off in the wake of the ten-foot-tall and Atlas-muscled Mounties, rifled and pemmicanned, who always, in the white Gold Rush wastes, got their black-oathed-and-bearded Man."Are there donkeys on desert islands?""Only sort-of-donkeys.""What d'you mean, sort-of-donkeys?""Native donkeys. They hunt things on them!""Sort-of walruses and seals and things?"“Donkeys can't swim!"These donkeys can. They swim like whales, they swim like anything, they swim like -""Liar.""Liar yourself."
A collection of evocative, semi-autobiographical sketches captures the sensory intensity and imaginative landscape of a Welsh childhood. The narrator navigates the boundary between the mundane realities of coastal Welsh life and the expansive, mythic world constructed by a young boy's curiosity. Through a series of vignettes, the text explores the tension between the constraints of adult expectations and the boundless, often chaotic, freedom of youth. The narrative framework relies on a lyrical, stream-of-consciousness style that prioritizes sensory immersion over traditional linear progression.
This work is widely regarded as a quintessential example of the author's ability to transform personal memory into universal literary art. Readers often note the musicality of the prose, which demands to be read aloud to fully appreciate its rhythmic structure. The collection is frequently analyzed for its balance between sharp, observational realism and the fantastical projections of a child's mind. Critics emphasize that the text serves as a vital bridge between the author's poetry and his more famous dramatic works, solidifying his reputation as a master of the English language. The enduring appeal of these stories lies in their refusal to sentimentalize the past, opting instead to present it with a raw, vibrant intensity.
Page Count:
0
Publication Date:
2008-07-01
Publisher:
William Collins
ISBN-10:
0007285779
ISBN-13:
9780007285778
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