The Devastating Boys by Elizabeth Taylor, 1972
The magic trick:
Setting up a black-and-white premise but pursuing only the gray ideas from it
Wealthy, educated, white couple with an empty nest in the English countryside sign up to take on two black children from London for two weeks.
Written in the early 1970s.
What could go wrong?
Yikes.
Well, I’ll tell you what – it’s a wonderful story. And not because it does everything right as a work of art. And not because everything goes well for the characters in the story. The whole is a little bit of a mess.
Judging the artist – there are things here that seem socially perceptive, layered and nuanced; other things that may make a 2021 reader wince.
As for the characters themselves? It’s a testament to the story that you’d be hard-pressed to describe with a single adjective how the boys’ two-week stay in the country goes. You might struggle to sum it up with five adjectives.
To set up such a (pardon the pun) black-and-white premise and play it out in search of only gray results, well…
… that’s quite a trick on Taylor’s part.
The selection:
“No, Sep,” said Laura firmly. “Either you get up properly and take it politely, or you go without.”
She wished that Benny hadn’t at once scrambled to his feet and stood there at attention. Sep buried his head again and moaned. All the sufferings of his race were upon him at this moment.
Benny took his sweet and made a great appreciative fuss about it.
All the china had gone up a shelf or two, out of reach, Mrs. Milner noted. It was like the old days, when Imogen’s and Lalage’s friends had come to tea.
“Now, there’s a good lad,” she said, stepping over Sep, and plugging in the vacuum-cleaner.
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