The Viaduct

When I was younger I read David Wheldon's book 'The Course of Instruction' and it made a big impression on me. A book about a man who, out of the blue, receives a letter summoning him to join a course, for no apparent reason. He attends at the stated time and place, but nothing about the course or the reason for the letter is ever made clear. A reviewer described the book as 'Kafkaesque' and so of course I had to next read some of Kafka's works to find out why.

Twenty-five years on I've finally come across another of Wheldon's books, 'The Viaduct', which was his first novel, described by Grahame Greene, no less, as 'A remarkable novel'. At the time it won the 'Triple First Award' (instituted to 'encourage new writing'). Sadly however the show more author, the book and even the award seem to have sunk into obscurity.

The book is about a man, released from prison who is driven to walk a disused railway along with many fellow travellers. It is indeed Kafkaesque in its feel and it seems to be set in a time and place like, but subtly different from, the one we are familiar with.

I have to say that it took me a while to read this book, despite it being a somewhat slim volume. This is never a good sign. One thing that I dislike about a book like this is that it feels like a metaphor or analogy, which I'm just not getting. The journey along the railway obviously feels like the passage through life, but the author explicitly refers to this interpretation and seems to discount it! "He was drawing the analogy between the railway and the passing of time. That's an old story." (p125). So what is the metaphor? Maybe there just isn't one, or maybe I'm not clever enough to figure it out.

The book is also too kafkaesque in that it's strongly reminiscent of 'The Trial' in parts. I think the book will remain vivid in my imagination for some time, as the central theme forms a powerful image, but I didn't find it an easy or particularly fulfilling read. show less