![]() But that doesn’t mean they have to live in the same way as them. How to Be Gay by David M Halperin Not everyone can run away from their captors. This is a deep and hilarious book about small truancies.Ħ. He loves to chain smoke as he goes, so as to annoy the more conservative ramblers. But he refuses to wear hiking gear, preferring a suit. When this gets too much for him, he walks. This existentially narked Norwegian feels imprisoned by his limited world – his flat, the local bar where he drinks and then drinks some more. Tramp by Tomas Espedal, translated by James Anderson Where Moitessier needs a bespoke sailboat, and plenty of supplies, to make his escape from the unbearableness of the day-to-day, Tomas Espedal needs only to step outside the door, decide whether to turn left or right, and just keep walking. If there’s such a thing as enlightenment, Moitessier found it halfway across the South Atlantic.ĥ. But as he is sailing towards the finish, he realises it just another entrapment. He has the chance to win and gain the glory. When he hears about the Golden Globe yacht race, he decides to join in. In 1968, Moitessier – already a legendary sailor – is planning to sail solo around the world, without touching land. For others safe, normal life is the worst imprisonment. The Long Way by Bernard Moitessier, translated by William Rodarmor Some people escape from concrete jails. All of this is based on the gossamer premise that an English gentleman decides one day, out of curiosity, to see if he can assassinate Adolf Hitler.Ĥ. Eventually, he is forced to go to ground. The main character is more like an animal fleeing a pack of hounds than a human protagonist. Ten pages in, and you’ve winced so many times your face is aching. Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household This novel begins with the most brutal chase sequence. Hitler in his sights … Peter O’Toole in the 1976 film of Rogue Male. ![]() The final encounter between man and bird is visionary. In its pages, a man tries to escape his human nature. Discovering this renowned classic of nature writing was some consolation. I applied in order to make a film version of Patience, but didn’t get on. This was chosen by Werner Herzog as one of the course books for his Rogue Film School – where he teaches lock-picking alongside cinematography. The Peregrine by JA Baker Chasing an elusive bird of prey around 1960s Essex, we track an even more elusive author. Her victorious escape from the hell of the English country house to be together with her true love, Captain Wentworth, makes her years of anguish worthwhile – almost.Ģ. She is surrounded by a grotesque gallery of the neurotic and the interfering, the boring and the presumptuous. Worse still, she has no true companionship. She isn’t literally in solitary, but – as an unmarried not-so-young woman, dependent on her demanding father, she is as trapped as any prisoner. In order to reach her happy ending, she endures years of confinement. Persuasion by Jane Austen Anne Elliot is the oldest of Austen’s heroines, and the longest-suffering. Here are 10 of my favourite great escapes, because sometimes Steve McQueen’s motorcycle does make it over the barbed wire fence.ġ. The prison is a Catholic children’s home in 1979, and the prisoner is a boy called Elliott who can move only one finger, but the basic obsessive situation of confinement/escape is the same. I was quite a few years into writing my novel Patience before I realised it was – among other things – a kind of prison-break story. Of course, there are lots of different ways a person can be in prison, and you don’t always have to get outside your particular prison to get away from it. And the more extreme the confinement, the more exhilarating the escape. But the rawest, most extreme form is confinement/escape. Tension/release is how most stories work. Like many people, I am obsessed with tales of great escapes. Looking back, I’m surprised I didn’t shell out for the experience. I listened to the iron door go slam, slam, slam. “For five extra bucks,” he said, “you can stay inside, individually, and I’ll slam the door on you.” I didn’t take up the offer. It was basically a coffin with a slightly higher ceiling. At the climax came the solitary confinement cell – “the Hole”. Gleefully, he led us into the concrete recreation yard, the library, the kitchen. He’d written a memoir, which he kept mentioning as he took us through the bleak horrors. A burly ex-guard led my tour party round his former workplace. Three hours, maybe even three and a half, but that was long enough. ![]() I did some hard time in Alcatraz – the walking tour, then the gift shop.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |