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September 1999

The Short History of a Prince

Review of The Short History of a Prince by Jane Hamilton.

The Short History of a Prince*** by Jane Hamilton Black Swan, 1999 It is the summer of 1972. The Vietnam War is coming to a close and the Watergate scandal is beginning to unfold. America may be in turmoil, but 15-year-old Walter McCloud is concerned only with keeping the pieces of his own world together. Walter’s elder brother Daniel is diagnosed with cancer, forcing the family to come to terms with the grim reality that “everything is not going to be okay.” Walter initially ignores his brother’s illness as he struggles with his own problems — his homosexuality and unrequited love for his ballet-friend Mitch. “If life for Walter was composed in part of confusion, shame and deception,” Hamilton writes, “then ballet was order, dignity and forthright beauty. He could come from the train, from the outside world of his brother’s sickness, his own strife and Mitch’s cruel taunt into the studio to the realm of dance.” Jane Hamilton’s characterization is superb. Walter is engaging as an adolescent whose longing for love and attention, struggles with his family and conflicting feelings toward his brother endear him to the reader. Somewhat less satisfying is the author’s anachronistic manner of telling the tale: in alternating chapters Walter is portrayed as a passionate, lonely teenager and as a withdrawn, middle-aged English teacher, which breaks the flow of the story. The chapters in which Walter and his family do little more than reminisce about the turbulent year of Daniel’s death are not nearly as compelling as those describing Walter’s early years. The most powerful scenes in the book are those in which young Walter realizes that he can no longer ignore his brother. But all Walter can do for Daniel is to wake him from his morphine-induced delirium, enabling him to catch a glimpse of his girlfriend in her prom dress. Shortlisted for the 1999 Orange Prize for fiction, The Short History of a Prince is a compassionate novel, full of honest insights into the human heart. Despite the tragic theme, it is often exhilarating and full of wit. <<<

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