Last Voyage & Other Stories

Commentary on Hanley Short Fiction Collection: The Last Voyage For the author who takes as his major theme the foibles and failures of the 'little man', a large readership may be wanting and wealth an unlikely acquisition. A majority of readers prefer victorious heroes. What appeals to romance devotees in an old fireman burning himself to death? Or to western fans about a disgruntled crew on a doomed ship? Yet James Hanley is no more pessimistic than Flaubert or Conrad, his predecessors, or Orwell his contemporary. Most of the stories in this collection were published in the early 1930's, a period when most of western civilization was stricken by The Great Depression. Already mayor European countries -- Spain, Italy, Germany, and Russia -- adopted toltalitarian governments which promised swift improvement through ruthless conformity and conquest. Irrevocable forces were bearing humanity toward another world conflict, the previous one a scant twenty years past. Scant suprise that writers like Hanley like Hardy before him, should view the common man, no matter how muscular, how fierce, as doomed to defeat. Given such an outlook, why should Hanley's stories appeal to any one? Some books are read for the subject, some for the style, and then there are those works which happily marry both. Henry Jame's convoluted prose matched the central intelligences he chose as narrators. Hemingway's laconic prose fitted the action focused characters he created. Before he became an author Hanley worked in a variety of more or less menial jobs. At least a decade was spent on ships as a crewman. His prose is simple and intense, a workman-like narrative that gets the job done without ostentation. Because a goodly portion of his fiction takes place in a sailing milieu, he is often compared to Conrad. His stories do not give the impression of a brooding profundity that Conrad's does, yet the dialogue, the introspective voice, may come closer to what life aboard a freighter must be like. Allan Ross in his introduction to the book observes this about James Hanley: "His impressive gifts of concentration, his dramatic skill, his poetic energy, work best in stories, as here, and in the short novel, when his compassion and anguish, pared down to the bone, create an often sublime intensity." Elsewhere the admiration of such writers as E.M. Forster, Faulkner, and Henry Green for Hanley has been remarked on. Surely, the esteem he enjoyed among such masters of narrative writing is an indication that Hanley offers qualities the discerning reader can appreciate. As is typical of the better authors he has an eyes for detail and a tenacious memory. The worst handicap for a reader will probably stem from unfamiliarity with some maritime terms. What does a "Greaser" grease on a ship? Something or everything? And the same for a "Trimmer". Taking in or letting out sails comes to mind, but Hanley's sailors work on engine driv