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Stepsons: A Novel
One of Robert Liddell’s finest novels, this is a compelling autobiographical study of two children caught in a web of adult intrigue and betrayal.
228 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
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About the author
Robert Liddell
65 books3 followersEnglish literary critic, biographer, novelist, travel writer and poet.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 5, 2023
Liddell's novelized works on his childhood are strikingly well-written for such a terrible youth. Kind Relations is an earlier book in the trilogy, and is an overview of the family relations within which these two brothers suffered, eventually overcoming a truly demonic stepmother and ineffectual father. This second volume truly reveals the cruelty of their lives; the stepmother's conniving to marry a widower, and her continuing mistreatment of everyone around her. It is difficult to read.
Family name, social position, image, and respect trumped kindness and honesty. All the relatives knew the true family dynamic, the mean spirited nature at the center of the web, but did nothing. It reveals the broader context of social interaction and lives of upper-class Britons of the era, but what horrors to which it could lead.
Liddell is a brilliant writer, however, and that rescues the book from what could be a totally bleak picture. The eventual triumph of the grown men is pyrrhic, of course, because of death, unhappiness, and lack of self-awareness. The brothers escape, however, and are bright men helping each other.
I look forward to reading the last of the trilogy and then continuing to Liddell's other, better-known works.
Family name, social position, image, and respect trumped kindness and honesty. All the relatives knew the true family dynamic, the mean spirited nature at the center of the web, but did nothing. It reveals the broader context of social interaction and lives of upper-class Britons of the era, but what horrors to which it could lead.
Liddell is a brilliant writer, however, and that rescues the book from what could be a totally bleak picture. The eventual triumph of the grown men is pyrrhic, of course, because of death, unhappiness, and lack of self-awareness. The brothers escape, however, and are bright men helping each other.
I look forward to reading the last of the trilogy and then continuing to Liddell's other, better-known works.
Displaying 1 of 1 review