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The Viaduct
A political prisoner, A., has just been released from a long term of imprisonment for writing a seditious book. Fearing re-arrest, he decides to leave town, setting off on foot along a disused railway track running over a huge viaduct that looms over the city. As his journey progresses through a surreal and nightmarish landscape, he passes through strange towns and villages and meets other travelers following the same path for reasons of their own, with his pursuers always at his heels. A. does not know what he may find at the terminus of the railroad line, and the ultimate horrific revelation of what lies at the end of his journey will linger with the reader long after finishing the book.
The Viaduct (1983), the first novel by David Wheldon (1950-2021), was chosen by Graham Greene and William Trevor as the winner of the Triple First Award and earned praise from critics on both sides of the Atlantic, who compared it to the works of Franz Kafka and Samuel Beckett. A haunting, enigmatic novel told in a stark prose style that reinforces the book's surreal, dreamlike quality, it is a story that is both compulsively readable and endlessly thought-provoking. This reissue of Wheldon's cult classic is the first in decades and features a new introduction by Aiden O'Reilly.
The Viaduct (1983), the first novel by David Wheldon (1950-2021), was chosen by Graham Greene and William Trevor as the winner of the Triple First Award and earned praise from critics on both sides of the Atlantic, who compared it to the works of Franz Kafka and Samuel Beckett. A haunting, enigmatic novel told in a stark prose style that reinforces the book's surreal, dreamlike quality, it is a story that is both compulsively readable and endlessly thought-provoking. This reissue of Wheldon's cult classic is the first in decades and features a new introduction by Aiden O'Reilly.
136 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 13, 2024
An entirely fascinating book written in pure allegorical form. I'm not sure I was able to fully penetrate its meaning, but there were def sections which did speak to me and gave me pause to think and examine. It encapsulates so many things as a metaphor for life, loneliness, society, moral indifferences and how we view the world in general. And I'm that's only a few things it touches on since so much of the book felt just out of reach on the first read.
It's an absorbing read otherwise and I loved Wheldon's crisp writing style. I'm just not sure how I feel about the book. I may end up thinking about it for a long time and have a feeling I will return to it over again. Which I feel would be fully in keeping with some of the messaging in the book.
It's an absorbing read otherwise and I loved Wheldon's crisp writing style. I'm just not sure how I feel about the book. I may end up thinking about it for a long time and have a feeling I will return to it over again. Which I feel would be fully in keeping with some of the messaging in the book.
August 4, 2026
Despite its reissue by Valancourt in 2024, this is a remarkably underappreciated, and, one could argue, still forgotten book. It has just 23 ratings on Goodreads, Wheldon’s other works have less, and yet, at the time of its release it received notable praise, winning the Triple First Award in 1983 and causing William Trevor to say that he remembered the book 'vividly long after reading it'. It deserves much better.
There is some cumbersome language and repetition, especially early in the book, but that can be largely ironed out by a proof reader, and there are lots of books I read and appreciate that could still do with an edit.
The style the book is written is though, is hugely enjoyable, and there are some wonderful and memorable sentences.
The story begins with Alexander, referred to as A., as Wheldon initially intended to add the full name later, but with A. came a Kafkaesque feel, which he was encouraged to keep. A. is losing his identity it seems, after being released from prison where he served time for writing a dissident book that purported to expose the secrets of the city’s government secrets, such as they were.
Soon though, he faces other, more serious charges and is pursued along a series of abandoned railway tracks, and over the titular viaduct that stands over and dominates the city.
Where A. is going is, like many things in the novel, uncertain. When asked, “Where are you going?” He simply replies, “I’m going on.” Further comparsion to Kafka perhaps, and his short piece The Departure
The reader is left uncertain also as to those who pursue him, just that they are of blunt features and have rehearsed patience, like KGB agents. Hence Wheldon depicts life as a constant search for comfort and assurance, but this desire for security is ultimately unattainable, merely an illusion.
It may have its faults, but I think its great.
There is some cumbersome language and repetition, especially early in the book, but that can be largely ironed out by a proof reader, and there are lots of books I read and appreciate that could still do with an edit.
The style the book is written is though, is hugely enjoyable, and there are some wonderful and memorable sentences.
The story begins with Alexander, referred to as A., as Wheldon initially intended to add the full name later, but with A. came a Kafkaesque feel, which he was encouraged to keep. A. is losing his identity it seems, after being released from prison where he served time for writing a dissident book that purported to expose the secrets of the city’s government secrets, such as they were.
Soon though, he faces other, more serious charges and is pursued along a series of abandoned railway tracks, and over the titular viaduct that stands over and dominates the city.
Where A. is going is, like many things in the novel, uncertain. When asked, “Where are you going?” He simply replies, “I’m going on.” Further comparsion to Kafka perhaps, and his short piece The Departure
At the gate he stopped me and asked: "And where are you going ,sir?" "I don't know," I said, "away from here, away from here. Only if I keep going away from here, can I reach my destination."
The reader is left uncertain also as to those who pursue him, just that they are of blunt features and have rehearsed patience, like KGB agents. Hence Wheldon depicts life as a constant search for comfort and assurance, but this desire for security is ultimately unattainable, merely an illusion.
It may have its faults, but I think its great.
February 12, 2023
[The Bodley Head] (1983). SB/DJ (Uncorrected Proof). 176 Pages. Bought from I. D. Edrich.
Maps - with clear nods to Franz Kafka - the peculiar, liminal odyssey of “A.” on release from prison; where he had been jailed for sedition. Fugitive evasion blended with a quest for ultimate meaning.
A plainly written, brief tale which is loaded with thought provoking symbolism.
“The have no conception of things beyond the boundaries of their own parishes.”
“…the trackside philosophers…they can be most beguiling. They all have their own ideas,their own rationales, their own devises for making the evident obscure.”
“…the signalmen… solitary and idiosyncratic…”
“…You can see you have a problem… Perhaps you might try to find out its exact nature before attempting to solve it…”
“In time we learn, all of us, that no other mortal is interested in what we have to say.”
“I did not want, by my non existent voice, to bring the pointless story of my own upbringing to his feet.”
“‘What drives you on? Where are you going? Or are you escaping?’ … ‘These are dramatic questions. And they are old. I cannot answer them.’”
“You have no option but to continue aling this road.”
“If you know where you are going, then you’ll do well.”
Per the late author’s own web-site:
“An allegory of life as travel and expectation. A man leaves his past and walks away from his city along an abandoned railway. He discovers that the track has become the home of innumerable travellers: the railway, in its disuse, has become a linear metaphor of the human world. Strangeness and unfamiliarity stretch away at either side of the familiar onward perspective.”
www.DavidWheldon.co.uk
Maps - with clear nods to Franz Kafka - the peculiar, liminal odyssey of “A.” on release from prison; where he had been jailed for sedition. Fugitive evasion blended with a quest for ultimate meaning.
A plainly written, brief tale which is loaded with thought provoking symbolism.
“The have no conception of things beyond the boundaries of their own parishes.”
“…the trackside philosophers…they can be most beguiling. They all have their own ideas,their own rationales, their own devises for making the evident obscure.”
“…the signalmen… solitary and idiosyncratic…”
“…You can see you have a problem… Perhaps you might try to find out its exact nature before attempting to solve it…”
“In time we learn, all of us, that no other mortal is interested in what we have to say.”
“I did not want, by my non existent voice, to bring the pointless story of my own upbringing to his feet.”
“‘What drives you on? Where are you going? Or are you escaping?’ … ‘These are dramatic questions. And they are old. I cannot answer them.’”
“You have no option but to continue aling this road.”
“If you know where you are going, then you’ll do well.”
Per the late author’s own web-site:
“An allegory of life as travel and expectation. A man leaves his past and walks away from his city along an abandoned railway. He discovers that the track has become the home of innumerable travellers: the railway, in its disuse, has become a linear metaphor of the human world. Strangeness and unfamiliarity stretch away at either side of the familiar onward perspective.”
www.DavidWheldon.co.uk
December 5, 2021
Dystopian existentialist novella: in some ways it feels as if it dates from the late 1950s or early 1960s. Curiously compelling & atmospheric, perhaps because I didn’t try to interpret as allegory or think too hard about it.
February 22, 2025
Slackness in the blackness be, fellow travelers. https://youtu.be/-NsdgiV9MZM?si=S1vgb...
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews