Matter of Indifference

matter of indifference, but it is true that Mr. Llewellyn has tried to uncover a motive for treason on the part of a British Foreign Office underling. Mr. Hamish Gleave is, so one is asked to believe, a declassed intellectual who resents the fact that he cannot command both influence and millions. His grandfather threw away a fortune, his father nursed a perennial grievance, and his wife Vinnie stewed and fussed about the mortgages and the difficulties of finding good schooling for two sons. All of this produced in Hamish Gleave a tremendous desire for something beyond his station.

The essential theme is that of Dickens’ Great Expectations, but with what a difference in circumstance and emphasis! Where Dickens’ characters have bounce and resourcefulness even when they are misled by heart and mind, Hamish Gleave has no resilience, no philosophy, no grip on life at the core of his being. In fact, his treason is so unsurprising that it comes as one of the flattest denouements in modern fiction.

JC

About the Author

John Chamberlain

John Chamberlain (1903–1995) was an American writer.

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matter of indifference, but it is true that Mr. Llewellyn has tried to uncover a motive for treason on the part of a British Foreign Office underling. Mr. Hamish Gleave is, so one is asked to believe, a declassed intellectual who resents the fact that he cannot command both influence and millions. His grandfather threw away a fortune, his father nursed a perennial grievance, and his wife Vinnie stewed and fussed about the mortgages and the difficulties of finding good schooling for two sons. All of this produced in Hamish Gleave a tremendous desire for something beyond his station.

The essential theme is that of Dickens’ Great Expectations, but with what a difference in circumstance and emphasis! Where Dickens’ characters have bounce and resourcefulness even when they are misled by heart and mind, Hamish Gleave has no resilience, no philosophy, no grip on life at the core of his being. In fact, his treason is so unsurprising that it comes as one of the flattest denouements in modern fiction.