Hurry on Down

John Wain's literary excellence lies in his simple style of writing. Hurry on Down is a study of disaffected youth in 1950's Britain. This Briain is smokey and industrial and everyone is earning a wage. This is the world of mugs of tea, Woodbine Cigarettes, rainy streets, fog and smog, a country that appeared to exist in continuous monochrome and the enigmatic pre-decimal coinage, even the book jacket proclaims that it cost "2/6" (two shillings and sixpence). At the centre of the book is Charles Lumley. Given that the book was written in 1953, Wain had become part of the tradition that had spawned fifties Anti-Heroes (Look back in Anger and Rebel without a cause). Lumley's first act of rebellion is to forego his university education and become a window cleaner.Consider these passages:-"In Charles's breast pocket was a paper packet containing his last cigarette. He took it out carefully, but it had somehow bent , and the paper was broken in the middle. He began to smoke it, holding it so that one finger exactly covered the torn spot, inhaling deeply. The hot storm-centre of alcohol in his stomach rose to meet the smouldering pool of nicotine in his lungs, and, the burden of guilt and fatigue slipping from his shoulders, he breathed a silent prayer of gratitude to the twin deities of his world""The words crashed into the silence by the sudden cessation in Blearney's voice. The effect was that of a man talking loudly in a tube train, who barks out at the end of his sentence as soon as the tube stops, and the whole carriage hears it""...Now we can really beginthe fun - the party's complete. Folks, this is Harry Lumpy...This is Jimmy, Stanley and Elsa" The succession of names flooded over his mind like dirty water..."