Monday Books has published a new excerpt from their wonderful Dalrymple collection “Second Opinion”. The leavening humor in this book makes it an extremely enjoyable read for Dalrymple devotees accustomed to his usual, more serious take on British slum culture:
WHY THE BRITISH want to reproduce themselves is a question which isas puzzling in its own way as that of the origin of life.
Their existence is so wretched, so utterly lacking in anythingreasonably resembling a purpose, so devoid of those things that makehuman life worthwhile (I am merely paraphrasing what thousands have toldme) that it is a marvel that they should go in for children.
I suppose the nearest I can come to an explanation is that they hope achild will supply the want that they feel: the triumph of hope overexperience, for they soon discover that a British child merely addschores to emptiness.
Ha! They’ve taken to explaining the meaning of the british slang which Dalrymple so often quotes.
BTW, I think they’ve got another post up in addition to the one mentioned here.
The link in this article actually points to the article in the Pure and Unvarnished Truth section. Could you please fix the link for THIS article at your earliest convenience? I’m keen to read this new Dalrymple excerpt. 🙂
Scroll down, and you’ll see it. It’s linking to the front page of the blog where all the posts are shown.
I’ll fix the link soon.
Thank you!!
I know three words