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I read Patrick Hamilton’s Twenty Thousand Street’s under the Sky recently after watching the dramatization on TV and was loathe to read Hangover Square after a friend told me that it was very similar. In some ways it was with similar locations, the same period interest, the same message regarding the perils of drink. But Twenty Thousand Streets was essentially a love story tinged with a great deal of sadness. A very gentle evocation of Bob’s love for Jenny and Ellas love for Bob. Maybe a romantic view of things, maybe a view which Hamilton had at the time before alcholism took over.
Hangover Square is about sexual obsession not love and is fuelled by alcohol and to a certain extent by Bone’s mental illness although I think he might have committed murder even if he hadn’t had schizophrenia. It is a thriller and is in complete contrast to Twenty Thousand Streets. Although I know little about Hamilton I do know he suffered some kind of horrendous accident which left him disfigured. Such a dark thing to happen to anyone and a darkness which maybe reflected in Hangover Square.
Although this may sound like proselytizing (it’s not meant to be) I do feel that the social message in Hamilton’s writing, however thickly it is sometimes laid – that alcohol is a social evil making people get out of control has a great resonance (if that’s the right word) in today’s society and as the abuse of alcohol in the nineteenth century had a resonance for Hamilton’s time.
The problem, if it is a problem, maybe that being reckless is much more interesting than being ordinary. Some of the most interesting art (painting, music, writing) has come from people being reckless with sex, drugs and alcohol. I liked Hangover Square and Twenty Thousand Streets but it is easy just to read a couple of books - no recklessness involved apart from spending the money.
Does anybody know of any more of Hamilton’s work in print?
Liz English
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