Reviews for View from Pompey's Head

The average rating for View from Pompey's Head based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-04-26 00:00:00 Colleen Wills Interesting, the ways we find our ways to books. I've encountered this title many times over the years in used bookstores, and though I had no interest in it, the title and the author's name have always stuck with me. I recently came across a mention of it during some internet-surfing about something else, and was intrigued by a mention of its main plot: "Manhattan attorney Anson Page returns to his Southern roots after 15 years, arriving in Pompey's Head, South Carolina, to investigate the mystery surrounding missing royalties due famous author Garvin Wales." I discovered that copies of the book are still in my county's public library system, and put in a request for it (my request for now-obscure titles such as this one, and FENGRIFFEN, THE STORY OF ESTHER COSTELLO, THE ORACLE and LOVERS ALL UNTRUE must have librarians - especially younger ones - scratching their heads as they head into the stacks. 5/02: Although this got off to a slow start, by about a quarter of the way through it became quite engrossing. Anson Page's return to his roots causes him to reflect back on his life in Pompey's Head and the people he knew there. The result is an entertaining novel about growing up in the South during the 1920s/1930s, and its ingredients are pretty much everything we've inevitably come to expect of such novels set in the South: economical (economic changes have come to several residents), social (resulting from those economic changes, and everyone worries a great deal over what will be thought or said about whatever they do), and racial (there is an account of a trial to obtain financial damages for an injured black man who works for Anson's father). At 409 pages the novel is a bit flabby - excising a few unnecessary repetitions would have tightened it up a bit. Looking back from 2012, the big secret regarding the missing royalties doesn't really carry the impact it would have in 1954, but that's to be expected; all in all I think this falls comfortably into the "They Don't Write 'em Like This Anymore" category.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-12-30 00:00:00 Jessica Damper A Good Writer from the Recent Past Recently I read an article published several years ago in The Boston Globe about two prominent 20th Century writers who are now largely forgotten. Perhaps it says something about me that I have read both and enjoyed their work. They are Calder Willingham and Hamilton Basso. I finished Basso's The View from Pompey's Head just last week. It is slow moving in a pleasant, languid, distinctly Southern manner. Basso gradually develops memorable characters, crafts fine scenes and steadily hones the plot - with the ultimate Southern shocker of miscegenation. The View From Pompey's head spent 40 weeks on The New York Times Bestseller List in the 1950s and was made into a Hollywood motion picture starring Richard Egan and the ravishing Dana Wynter. Basso published 11 books and edited The New Yorker for 20 years but is virtually forgotten today. Basso and The View From Pompey's Head deserve a wider audience and greater appreciation from readers in 2005.