Felicia's Journey

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Summary: Felicia's Journey
Review: William Trevor?s Felicia?s Journey tracks the unfortunate travels and travails of its hero in the gothic, semi-industrial cityscape of a late twentieth-century English factory town. Her meeting of one Mr. Hilditch, the head caterer at one of town?s several factories, brings the poor girl?s already troubled life to a harrowing peril of both the physical and moral sorts.
Trevor?s somnambular style glides us through a fallen dreamscape studded with flashbacks in a manner that almost exempts him of the empathetic anguish inflicted upon the reader. Almost. Indeed, Trevor?s national allegory is so grief ridden, so utterly bleak that it is difficult to appreciate the merits of this work. Felicia is so painfully naïve that it becomes difficult to sympathize with her even as she is dragged through exhaustive turmoil. The audience?s hope in redemption is dashed like waves against the very shore upon which Felicia lands. So used to such incessant emotional torment is the reader that the climax fails to impress. Trevor leaves us unnecessarily jaded, allowing one final glimmer of hope only to have it washed away in the tide. As such, this reader finds it necessary to give Mr. Trevor a generous four thumbs up (out of a possible ten).

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Summary: hypnotic
Review: With elements of Faulkner's Light in August, young Irish Felicia sets out on a journey to find the father of the baby growing inside her. With the same determination as Faulkner's young woman, she seems convinced the father loves her and did not mean to leave without giving her his address. She soon falls into the clutches of Hilditch, whose dark past is eventually revealed. Rich with imagery of flowers and food, the novel shows Hilditch to be a character who wants to consume everything he can to try to fill the void of his empty life. The novel turns out to be more than a twisted detective type novel as it reveals itself to be an allegory for the relations between the patriarchal, dominating England and the poorer, more desperate Ireland. Felicia's own great grandmother becomes a symbol of Irish pride as she, like the legend of her husband who was a revolutionary, seems to outlive everyone else. Furthermore, it is an interesting and often truthful story about a single pregnant woman making a journey to England for the possibility of an abortion or a way to make money since abortions are illegal in Ireland and jobs are scarce. Written only two years after the X case, where a fourteen year old Irish girl involved the world in her need for an abortion, this novel has more than one major relevancy to today's politics.