OVER FERN HILL

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 948, 11 October 1957, Page 12

OVER FERN HILL

LEFTOVER LIFE TO. KILL, by Caitlin Thomas; Putnam, English price 18/-. ‘THis is the unhappiest book I have read, thereby fulfilling the promise of its title; but it is not a good book, as sad books often are. The widow of Dylan Thomas is stylistically as well as emotionally embroiled in her bard,

and she overwrites her agony. Better to be silent. But no doubt there are mouths to feed, in spite of writers’ appeals: young Thomases, who must learn to forgive parents more turbulent than our times allow. These two, Dylan and Caitlin Thomas, will go down in gossip, scandal and literature, like Lawrence and Freida, larger and louder than life. In the long run the fighting won't affect the writing, for both men were geniuses. But the fighting and all the other excesses remain interesting, as part of genius. Even when we are carrion, feeding on some tormented carcass, we get a subtly sadistic satisfaction from our self-consuming betters, who are more vigorously alive fhan we are even when they are dead. It is this kind of satisfaction Leftover Life to Kill gives, Caitlin Thomas writes about herself, rather than about him. She spares us nothing. She humiliates herself cruelly, repeatedly, publicly. She is clearly as undisciplined as her husband was in everything except his poetry; and the lack of discipline spills over in sex, drink, and mottled prose. Describing a long visit to an island in the Mediterranean after Dylan's death, Leftover Life to Kill is a shapeless diary, which might have been dictated from a psychiatrist’s couch, were it not for the fact that her courage makes her impervious to help of that kind, Anyway, I hope it will help her financially. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be much point to it.

Anton

Vogt