Volume 2, Number 2 · March 5, 1964
Nothing to Lose But Your Chains
By Stanley Kauffmann
The Ragman's Daughter
by Alan Sillitoe
Knopf, 190 pp., $3.95
'The Magic Box,' which is the longest story in Alan Sillitoe's new collection, is also the best. A working-class couple in a Midlands city fall into estrangement following the accidental death of their child. The husband, who was a radioman in the Army, buys a short-wave set with his share of some football winnings and spends much of his time in the dead boy's room, listening to messages from ships at sea. His emphasized isolation drives him out of his mind for some months. While he is in the hospital, the wife, who has long been lonely, has an affair and becomes pregnant. When he returns, she announces it calmly. He tries to retreat again to the room and the radio. He cannot. He beats her. Then they cling together desperately.
Review, 1349 words
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