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ianbanks's review
5.0
I'm really conflicted about Dylan Thomas. On the one hand, he was quite a progressive in many ways, affecting some conservative, old-fashioned mannerisms for effect but showing a truly modern spirit in his writing and championing quite a few writers from backgrounds quite different to his own. On the other hand he was quite the sponger and about one third of the letters in this collection feature him asking someone for money for various reasons and showing that he, while not an uncaring spouse or father, was unwilling to do anything other than write for a living, even when creditors were banging his doors down.
I'm also of the belief that he was extremely blessed in his friends, who were able to see some sort of worth in him that they were willing to go to the lengths that they did to support him. I'm fairly sure that he'd've loved Twitter and Patreon and all the other perks of our modern age.
But, ultimately, he was a gifted writer and poet who should have lived longer than he did and produced more than he did (surely and epithet all writers aspire to?) which is where these letters truly shine: written for an audience of one, we can see the true talent of someone who really loves what the language can do when you push it to its limit. Painfully punny, quite quippy, lusciously lubricious, routinely ribald, often very honest, sometimes diplomatic and coy to a fault, here we have a true self-portrait of an artist as a young dog, artist, man and poet.
I'm also of the belief that he was extremely blessed in his friends, who were able to see some sort of worth in him that they were willing to go to the lengths that they did to support him. I'm fairly sure that he'd've loved Twitter and Patreon and all the other perks of our modern age.
But, ultimately, he was a gifted writer and poet who should have lived longer than he did and produced more than he did (surely and epithet all writers aspire to?) which is where these letters truly shine: written for an audience of one, we can see the true talent of someone who really loves what the language can do when you push it to its limit. Painfully punny, quite quippy, lusciously lubricious, routinely ribald, often very honest, sometimes diplomatic and coy to a fault, here we have a true self-portrait of an artist as a young dog, artist, man and poet.
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