Thoroughfare

by Christopher Morley

I loved it and put it in the same pigeonhole of books to read again where his own John Mistictoe and Human Being belong. Once again he has ""caught a human being in the act of being human"". Once again Chris Morley is himself, this time in the person of small Geoffrey Barton, English lad, shortly to become Jeff Barton, American citizen-in-the-making. The book takes its title from a winding street that goes through the English village where Geoffrey is being brought up by a regiment of aunts. Into this aunt hill comes the almost legendary Uncle Dan from America, and, before he goes back again to that wild west of ""Chesspeaks"" (substitute Baltimore), he persuades his sister Bee and Geoffrey to come with him. There's an immediacy in the pattern of the days that follow, as Geoffrey, Briton, becomes Jeff, American, for highlighted and undertoned are marshalled those little differences between two allies that are great gaps in mutual understanding and sympathy, --differences in pronunciation, in accent, in phraseology, in custom and manner and emphasis. But it is more than this. It is a searching and sympathetic and understanding picture of a boy growing up; a nostalgic background look to the pranks and disasters and adventures of boyhood, the cruelties and the imaginings, the dreams and the realities. Therefore becomes a symbol of the winding thread linking England and America, and at its close, newly made citizen Jeff Barton, is about to go back to England for a holiday, to revisit the scenes of boyhood. The period is a generation ago. Morley knows both countries well, from his own boyhood on; and his gallery of characters is a vital one. There is little of patterned plot. The book is the boy and the man.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Historical Fiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1942

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

American writer Christopher Darlington Morley founded the Saturday Review, from 1924 to 1940 edited it, and prolifically, most notably authored popular novels.

Christopher Morley, a journalist, essayist, and poet, also produced on stage for a few years and gave college lectures.

Reviews

[Elisabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The cat got into the milk at the same moment that Uncle Dan arrived from America."

How can you not love a novel with an opening line like that? And as a matter of fact, that line captures the essence of the novel: the juxtaposition of the little events with the big ones and the resulting texture of life's big picture.

Thorofare is not quite like any other novel I've read before. What the novel is about is not really the point. In the literal sense, it's about—meaning it follows the fortunes of—a young English boy who travels to America with his uncle, a professor at an American college, and a spinster aunt who is going to keep house for them. But it's how their story is told that's remarkable. It's a big novel composed of little details. Sights, sounds, smells, tastes—the light miscellaneous back-and-forth of conversation, sometimes laced with deeper thoughts; the interplay of different personalities—the culture of neighborhoods and towns and nations. Being told mostly from the viewpoint of a child, it hones in on all those little things which loom large in a child's eyes. Through this method it brings to vivid life the late-Victorian/early-Edwardian era in the book's multiple settings: a village in Suffolk; a steamer at sea; the city of Chesapeake, Virginia; a boarding-house in the Blue Ridge; a Virginia plantation. The overarching theme of the book, lingering in the background all the while, is the link between England and America, the two nations who share a language and baffle each other with their different use of it—the bonds between them, the barriers to their understanding of each other's cultures and personalities.

It's the kind of book that's so rich in detail you like to take it in small slices, like a rich food. I described it a little more fancifully in my journal while partway through the novel—like a symphony with all the instruments playing at once, down to the littlest thing in the percussion section. It's got a rhythm, in rounds, with counterpoint: the rhythm of everyday life, which is sort of the same whatever century or country you live in. When I put the book down I could almost hear it myself, going on in my own home. Morley managed to capture that and put it between the covers of a novel. For the reader, it's the equivalent of putting a magnifying-glass on humanity and on a particular time and place, and it's a marvelous reading experience.

[Chautona Havig · Rating 4 out of 5]

In so many ways, this is a 100% five-star read. The only thing that pulled it down for me were a few disjointed sections where we're presumed to know what is going on in a way that may have made sense to folks when it was written but now...
For example:
It took quite a few chapters to figure out that our main protagonist, Geoffrey, is eight. I could've seen him from six to eight or nine at most.
When Aunt Bee is packing the "emergency bag" to go to America... there's nothing there that says SHE is going with that bag. I was shocked to find her on the ship!
Sometimes years disappear between chapters and we don't find out for pages what is going on. That sort of thing made keeping up difficult in places.
And even with all that, I nearly gave it five stars because it was just such a FUN story.
Geoff is a fabulous character--all boy, all curiosity and imagination, but while he isn't perfect, he is a NICE boy. He's fun and thoughtful, kind and considerate. And yet he has his ridiculous moments where he does really stupid things. Just like all boys.
Geoffland--the maps and all that goes into that MADE the book for me. I love how he used them to make sense of a new world and life in that world, how he used them to understand his lessons, and even how to make friends.
I love the way Morley compared and contrasted ideas about England and America from each other's perspectives and why they can be so annoying to each other.
And I even love how you're reading along, just enjoying the meanderings of the story, and whoosh! Morley jerks the rug out from under you with a huge event or twist you didn't see coming!
He even showed how who you spend your time with affects how you think and behave. Did I like that Geoff began using inappropriate language when around certain people? No. I did like that Morley showed it but didn't immerse us in it. We see it and then are moved along.
I'd better stop there before I end up leaving spoilers, but there you have it.

Caveat: if realistic portrayals of embedded racism in society at the time are offensive--including the rare but present use of racial slurs--then this is not the book for you. While I didn't LIKE seeing offensive words like that, I do see advantages to seeing how society has grown and changed over the last century.

[Ashlea Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm sad to leave these characters behind. I spent almost two months meandering through this book and savoring the characters.

The time passing between sections felt abrupt with Geoffry starting at an unknown age, then age 8, then 10, then 14, and finally 21. The excessive swearing in a couple of the chapters took away some enjoyment.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful book, one that I enjoyed immensely, full of gentle but humorous details of life on both sides of the pond in the early 20th century.