Sinister Street

by Compton Mackenzie

Sinister Street is a 1913–14 novel by Compton Mackenzie. It is a kind of bildungsroman or novel about growing up, and concerns two children, Michael Fane and his sister Stella. Both of them are born out of wedlock, something which was frowned upon at the time, but from rich parents. In the UK, the novel was published as two volumes, and in the USA these appeared as two separate books - Youth's Encounter (1913) and Sinister Street (1914). Sinister Street (Vol 2) Book One DREAMING SPIRES Book Two ROMANTIC EDUCATION

476 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1914

About the author

Compton Mackenzie was born into a theatrical family. His father, Edward Compton, was an actor and theatre company manager; his sister, Fay Compton, starred in many of James M. Barrie's plays, including Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. He was educated at St Paul's School and Magdalen College, Oxford where he obtained a degree in Modern History.

Mackenzie was married three times and aside from his writing also worked as an actor, political activist, and broadcaster. He served with British Intelligence in the Eastern Mediterranean during World War I, later publishing four books on his experiences. Compton Mackenzie was from 1920–1923 Tenant of Herm and Jethou and he shares many similarities to the central character in D.H. Lawrence's short story The Man Who Loved Islands, despite Lawrence saying "the man is no more he than I am." Mackenzie at first asked Secker, who published both authors, not to print the story and it was left out of one collection.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A crucial book in Fitzgerald biographies because it influenced This Side of Paradise so much, and like TSOP the ending is extremely unconvincing. But this section has a very fun old-timey college novel in it and then afterwards a surprisingly high number of prostitutes, and as with volume 1 it benefits from Mackenzie's interesting intellect milieu and self-aware observation.

[Whitney Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not to get too stuck in the vivid portrayals of life at Oxford, I must say that I enjoyed tasting life at Oxford. As in reading Volume One, this awesome author's again reminded me of Edith Wharton, describing Oxford as “the quintessence of human desire and human vision so supremely displayed through the merely outward glory of its repository” and creating delicious word pictures such as these:

• The choir boys gathered like twittering birds at the base of the tower…

• The dons came hurrying like great black birds in the gathering light

• …the choir boys twittered again like sparrows, and, bowing their greetings to one another, the dons cawed gravely like rooks.

When Michael finally graduates from Oxford's oozing snobbery, he embarks into a journey of replicating Don Quixote, one of his all-time favorite characters. Michael's life then becomes a long litany of seeking one “windmill” after another, which I found both hilarious and pathetic at the same time. His compassion was so over-the-top that I actually felt relieved to get the the end of the story and quixotic vanity. At the tender age of twenty-three, this young man catches onto how dangerous it can be to play God.

Holden Caulfield came to mind frequently while I read Volume Two (as he had when I was reading Volume One). I truly wonder if Salinger had read "Sinister Street" before writing "Catcher in the Rye." According to the tuning fork I am holding here, all three volumes seem to converge (and resonate!) on the same note.