One Hand Clapping by Anthony Burgess

English fiction

Source – Personal copy

I’m back after my short break, and one of the books I had read for the 1961 club. I had only decided late on reading this, since I had planned to review it here at some point. I love Burgess’s work and think he should be better known not just for Clockwork Orange .  bookAs is writing has such a wide range.  This is a book he published as Joseph Kell between 1959 and 1960. Burgess wrote five and a half books after being warned he might die, to leave both a legacy and security for his family.  Hence, he used another name when the book came out, as he had brought out so many in a short time. Another thing about the book is that it uses fewer than 1000 words. It was his view on the decline of intelligence in the UK and on how American views and TV style were taking over.  It is an American style with people like Hughie Green presenting quiz shows.

HoWARD celebrated Myrtle coming to stay with us for a bit by putting on a really big sort of midnight matinee which scared the daylights out of Myrtle and made her take sleeping tablets. At about five past twelve by the luminous alarm-clock Howard woke me up by laughing very loud and nudging me hard as though we were watching something which he thought very funny at the pictures.

Then he started burbling a lot of nonsense words, then he seemed to settle down again to sleep and I said Thank God’ to myself. But I said it a lot too soon, because almost right away Howard was at it again, but this time not laughing, just the opposite, howling out loud, though it wasn’t real crying. From her room next door Myrtle called in a frightened voice:

One of the other things in the books is Mrytle and herr relationship to Howard

The book follows a few weeks in the life of Howard and Shirlety, a young couple at the start, as they go about their normal lives. When Howard, who had been a used car salesman at the start of the book, always had this photographic memory. So when he decides to appear on a TV show with a prize of 1000, which was a lot of money in 1960, the Bank of England inflation calculator says it is about 20000 these days, so a lot of money. He joins in and goes to London after the first show, which he does very well alongside another contestant. HE RETURNS TO manchester now famous, it is around this time we also find out he is clairvoyant and bets and sees the future. But as the book goes on, he sees a darker event for him and Shirley. As he gets further into the quiz, he loses his job, and people begin to gather around them. He wins after a near miss, which saw him give an answer that seemed wrong, but wasn’t . Will Shirley escape his dark ideas? What will happen to the money? What will it do to their lives?

“Elizabethan drama. Who wrote The Shoemaker’s Holi-day, Bartholomew Fair and A New Way to Pay Old Debts? ” And Howard said:”Henry James; Edward Morgan Forster; Ford Madox Hueffer.” Then there was deathly silence, because Laddie didn’t say, as he’d always said so far, “And you’re right.” Instead he sort of puzzled over his bit of paper and seemed to tremble a bit. He said, “I’m terribly sorry, Howard, I’m really dreadfully sorry, because it’s such a tiny mistake you’ve made ” The audience went ” Awwwww,” very loud. “Such a tiny mistake,” said Laddie, louder. ” What I’ve got written down here is not Ford Madox Hueffer but Ford Madox Ford.” “Henry James; Edward Morgan Forster; Ford Madox Hueffer.” Then there was deathly silence, because Laddie didn’t say, as he’d always said so far, “And you’re right.” Instead he sort of puzzled over his bit of paper and seemed to tremble a bit. He said, “I’m terribly sorry, Howard, I’m really dreadfully sorry, because it’s such a tiny mistake you’ve made ” The audience went ” Awwwww,” very loud. “Such a tiny mistake,” said Laddie, louder. ” What I’ve got written down here is not Ford Madox Hueffer but Ford Madox Ford.”

The questions and here the answer Howard gave was right but one I wouldn’t known Ford Madox Ford wasn’t the writers given name as I say could you answer these question

The book is told from Shirley’s point of view as she sees Howard use his skills to win the quiz show. What tickled me about the contestations on the quiz show, with a host who was a nod and a tongue-in-cheek reference to Hugie Green, the most famous quiz show host at the time, as we see Howard and the ladies head closer to the jackpot.  But what tickled me was the questions he used in the quiz all about literature, and I think they struggle to answer even University challenges these days. It showed that, as they got the money, there was an early start to consumerism, as the couple faced the money and what to do with it. As the book shows, Howard’s witnessing the world’s end changes his relationship with Shirley. She is the narrator of the book, and Burgess’s use of fewer than a thousand words shows her as just a simple girl, in a way, while Howard is an average man with an amazing memory. The book is maybe one of Burgess’s least known books, but it is a glimpse of a time just as TV was starting, and maybe if the answers to the questions here were known, more people would know.  Have you read any of Burgess ‘ lesser-known books? This has just been brought back into print, so it is now easier to get hold of. The title is a nod to the Zen question: What is the sound of one hand clapping? and also it seems a Malay proverb as well this came just after Burgess had been in Malay.