THE SLEEP OF REASON

by C. P. Snow ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1968

This latest Snow is more of a dying fall than a storm. It contemplates the passing of time, the slippage of power, the assertion of a new generation and the painful vagaries of human nature. It reminds one in a sense of the novels of the late J. P. Marquand, with its uneasy, middle-aged awareness that the individual stamp has disappearing ink. Although a good section of the novel has to do with the trial of two young women for a horrible crime, a prototype of the marsh murders in England, this is essentially a novel of fathers and sons, parents and children. While Sir Lewis observes with some excitement and occasional misgivings the restless metamorphosis of his young son Charles toward adulthood, he also sadly accepts the waning egos and deaths of his own father and his wife's father. There are the not overly graceful retirements or withdrawals of friends and colleagues, a parade of failing eminences. And there is his own frightening partial loss of sight. As the artifacts of passing time seem to pile up and focus, the concerns of the world seem to simplify and somehow the cabal of the young cannot see the signposts or have no use for them. The trial of the child-murderers (in which Sir Lewis is involved as the boyhood friend of an uncle of one) points up the ultimate concern for which there is really so little time to influence -- the nature of individual responsibility in an increasingly complicated world. ""Put reason to sleep and all the stronger forces were let loose... and that... meant a chance of hell."" Snow's approach is as massively ceremonious as ever. Each character is introduced by an organ chord of commentary: thoughts are as long as life; characters from other books are prodded into being. But there is a certain dogged majesty in this far exit as Snow lumbers down the halls of power.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Scribners

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1968

Categories: FICTION