*Radcliffe by David Storey (Coward-McCann, 1964)

 

Radcliffe is a strange, densely-written book about the passionate and obsessive relationship between two men in the north of England.  Leonard Radcliffe is the scion of an ancient aristocratic family who no longer have money and whose ancestral home, called The Place, is crumbling and derelict.  It is now controlled by a trusteeship, and Leonard's father (John) works as the caretaker and lives with his family in the few remaining  habitable rooms.

The novel follows Leonard Radcliffe from his early boyhood through his adolescence, when he first meets and connects with Vic Tolson, whose magnificent body seems to be mysteriously and symbiotically connected to Leonard's soul and mind.  Radcliff  reencounters Tolson as an adult and begins a tortured sexual and psychological relationship with him that ultimately kills them both.

Leonard Radcliffe is what today would be called "on the spectrum."  He's a strange, solitary, non-communicative boy who grows into an even more troubled and antisocial man.  His only affection and connection come from Tolson, and since their relationship is totally destructive and impossible, Radcliffe knows he will always be estranged and alone.

Storey unfolds this dark, gothic novel over 400 very densely-written pages.  The third-person narrator is hyper-descriptive and psychologically analytical -- almost every sentence includes some sort of comparison using "as if" or "as though," all in an effort to describe the bizarre internal world of the character.  It's a bad dream of a book, played out on a level of psychological abstraction that prevents the reader from identifying or sympathizing with Radcliffe (or any of the other characters).  But realism is obviously not Storey's aim here, and the book's peculiarity, while often puzzling and distancing, makes for a reading experience unlike any other, and there is something commendably courageous about that.