Adventures in the Skin Trade by Dylan Thomas

 

Adventures in the Skin Trade

by Dylan Thomas

Disclaimer: I'm rather behind on my reviews, so they will be super brief until I get caught up again.

If a shopping list authored by Dylan Thomas were to turn up, I would probably award it five stars. Anything the man put to paper is a work of genius. Under Milkwood is about the only thing I ever reread. 

Adventures in the Skin Trade is a fragment of a novel Thomas never got around to finishing, the first four chapters, I think. It follows a young man who moves from South Wales to London. The prose style is typical of Thomas, verging on the surreal at times, taking joy in the physicality of the words. Not a lot happens, the hero arrives in London and has an interesting encounter in a cold bath with a lively young lady and some aftershave. But it is pure Dylan Thomas.

If you like Dylan Thomas, you will like this book. When viewed as part of the greater oeuvre, it works as a kind of prose poem, or a snap shot of what could have been. Otherwise, I must admit it is not really coherent or extensive enough to stand on its own two feet.

118½/140: ★★★★★