TITLE - A KIND OF LOVING
WRITTEN BY - STAN BARSTOW
GENRE - CONTEMPORARY FICTION
PUBLISHED BY - PARTHIAN BOOKS
PUBLICATION DATE - 10TH JUNE 2022
A Kind Of Loving” was a “kitchen-sink drama” classic in its day, its reputation bolstered by the celebrated film starring Alan Bates. The novel returns in a brand new edition from Parthian Books - which is fitting because author Stan Barstow lived in South Wales in later life until his death - but does this slice of Northern life have any relevance today?
It is, without doubt, somewhat dated, with characters and attitudes very much of their time; the language, for example, will surprise a modern reader, and it is not a novel that is likely to be a feminist “Book of the Month Club” pick - this is very much a book for men, with much talk of “bints” and other even less savoury epithets. Although Vic Brown is not a hero, or even an anti-hero; he’s just as flawed and human as any young man.
Barstow makes Vic a likeable narrator despite his faults, and gives him some breathtakingly beautiful turns of phrase in his inner monologues which counterpoint the “bloke-iness” of the character. Vic’s rather awkward and fumbling pursuit of Ingrid is endearing, and there is a very funny section where Vic reads Molly Bloom’s soliloquy from “Ulysses” and can’t believe such sexual frankness is allowed in print. He is also a bit of a snob in his occasional scorn of certain Northern working-class traits; always restless and wanting something better. His treatment of Ingrid, (a character who is, by accident or design, not as well drawn as Vic, but she engenders sympathy from the reader) seems callous, and when he admits to himself that he doesn’t truly love her, it comes as a quite a shock.
The story is timeless, but, more than anything, the novel, originally published in 1960, is a vivid snapshot of early ‘60s Britain, the North of England in particular. The politics and class divides of the time are prominent, especially in the factory where Vic works. Bus fares cost threepence, there are jobs for life, men work in coal-mines and go to the football on Saturdays, while their wives run the house. There is much talk of a “boom” in industry and business during the novel’s time period, and whether it can last.
Stan Barstow was a very skilled and naturalistic writer, with a gift for observing the realities of life. The characters’ journey is one that virtually anybody can relate to. Ultimately, “A Kind of Loving” is an immensely readable, honest and captivating story from an era when you could have a red-blooded male as a hero without incurring a jail sentence, and the story itself can be enjoyed, with an open mind, on its own terms.
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