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Friday 5 December 2008

The Crowded Street

Not the marrying type

Matthew Dennison reads Winifred Holtby's latest novel

In fact The Crowded Street contains moments of terrific comedy, like the scene in which Muriel’s sister Connie disappears at an uncontrolled gallop on the dashing hero’s chestnut mare. It is punctuated by a quietly mordant wit that ruthlessly exposes the pretensions of Marshington’s intensely snobbish provincial society: ‘Some women take to crochet as others do to cigarettes.’ Its female characters are strongly drawn, although its menfolk remain stocktypes. The novel is well-crafted, elegant, intelligent and persuasive. Only at the final fence does it fall.

Holtby must have been aware that the outcome she bestowed on her readers would disappoint many of them. We can rejoice in Muriel’s belated moment of self-determination only if we believe that she has changed enough to make her stand with conviction and certainty. And of this, this reader remains unsure. A Hollywood scriptwriter would rewrite the ending. So, too, would this reader. But then, this reader is a man.

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