AN EDGE OF PRIDE
SIR,—Mr. Deane Narayn speaks glibly of 'our culture' in his curious objection last week to my review of his novel An Edge of Pride, as though Britain and America were one. That there is public concern in Britain over excessive profitmaking has been shown recently by the Ferranti/Bloodhound affair.
The hero of the book objects on grounds s.f conscience to his unpleasant brother buying a violin for a hundred dollars from a mentally sick ex-serviceman and selling it for five thousand: yet when this same hero does an even more reprehen- sible deal himself, thwarting the last wishes of an old woman, there is no censure of any kind. This is what led me, surely justifiably, to write that the effect of the book is, ludicrously, to suggest that excessive profitmaking is all right when done by nice people and only to be condemned when done by nasty people.
I notice that Mr. Narayn does not mention what he considers to be the real theme of the book : indeed, he seems in some doubt about the distinction between 'theme' and 'plot.' However, if questioning the morality of excessive profitmaking is not the theme of An Edge of Pride, and it is merely an account of certain characters and events, then I treated the book with far more seriousness than its author believes it is worth.
34 Claremont Square, NI
B. S. JOHNSON
Previous page
