Wreckage

Hubert Crackanthorpe's Wreckage: Seven Studies explores a dark world of prostitution, alcoholism, and abandonment. It is hard for me as the reader to see "his obituary in the pages of his fiction." If In fact Crackanthorpe was writing from real life experience, well I feel sorry for him. I see Crackanthorpe more so as a higher class citizen fascinated by and assuming what goes on in the lower classes. The stories are way too tragic and because of that I am lead to believe that he did not experience them first hand. Rather, that Crackanthorpe wrote about these stories as an escape from his dull life of privilege and the frills of earlier Victorian writings where everything was just dandy.

The literary creation of societal desolation, introverted bleakness, pathologies of trauma and revenge, disconnect and desperation, is a task that proves to be daunting for Crackanthorpe, in this, the most well known of his short body of works. We cannot condemn his intentions, his passion for the depressed, deranged, disposed, but nor can we condone his insensible and entirely insensitive attempts to personify things and lives he had never, could never, and would never have truly known. An upperclassmen can put on a pair of shoes that are missing the soles, and a jacket with the shoulder seams coming undone, but the oppression of not having any other option can never just simply be worn. Crackanthorpe tries, and to be fair... tries relentlessly, but which in the end leads the reader to feel more pity for the shallow and soulless writer, rather than his shallow and soulless characters.

CS, what were you thinking? Clearly you were focusing too much on the Today Show when you wrote this 'review'. Crackanthorpe's 'Wreckage' is in no way a retelling of his own experiences, yet it is merely a long drawn out fantasy world of the 19th Century English lifestyle. The only aspect I will agree with you CS, is the fact that these studies are dim. However, they are filled with a longing type of love. After reading 'Wreckage' you will want a warm embracing hug. Crackanthorpe tortures his characters with the opportunities to have love, yet they are foolish and let love fall out of their hands. A word to the wise- don't read 'Werckage' after a bad break up. KD