BIOGRAPHY
As a poet, he belonged to a group of writers called “The Movement”, active in the 1950s. They wanted to give a sense of Englishness in their poems and go back to traditional literature, a reaction to the exuberance and exoticism of the modernists, such as Dylan Thomas. Other members were Kingsley Amis (Martin Amis’s father), Philip Larking and Ted Hughes (Sylvia Plath’s partner).
As a narrator, he was associated with the “Angry Young Men”, a group of writers highly critical of the political system and the social order; so, their literature would be more realistic, and their topic the lives of the working class. Here we find Allan Sillitoe and John Osborne, whose play Looking Back in Anger was the seed of this tendency. We also can say that Harold Pinter, Doris Lessing and Iris Murdoch shared some of their ideas.
Perhaps Wain’s most interesting work was Hurry on Down, a comical novel that follows the adventures of a young man after finishing his university studies.
SUMMARY
Mr Willison is somebody who wasn’t very happy with his
youth and childhood. He wasn’t satisfied with his physical education. He would
have exercised more, played more sports. He had studied hard to get a good job
and so all the time was working on books and exams.
Now he has a teenage son, Rob, and he wants to give
him another kind of education. Not so much school academic subjects and a
little bit more of sport. So, he takes his boy for long bike rides and prompts
him to inscribe in the school rugby team. But Rob isn’t very fond of physical
activities; nevertheless, he loves his father and wants to make him happy.
One day, after several miles of cycling, Mr Willison
gives his son a boxing punch-ball and a pair of boxing mittens. Rob isn’t really
interested in boxing, but he doesn’t reject his father’s present, and he even
tries to hit the ball with all his strength.
Then, at school, we suppose because of his father’s
insistence, tries, or says he tries, to join the rugby team. But, as in the end
he isn’t selected, he makes up for saying he was chosen for the boxing team;
this way he doesn’t disappoint his father. Mr Willison is very excited with
this piece of news, and he takes on himself to train him. However, his wife says
boxing is a dangerous sport for the brain, and there is a heated discussion
about the topic between husband and wife. Mr Willison is overjoyed, and Mrs
Willison is furious.
So everyday Rob trains very hard with his father, but,
when the day of the tournament arrives, he says he doesn’t feel very well and
that he cannot fight in the contest. His mother is very worried and blames his
husband for the situation and tells him to call the doctor. Mr Willison is so
bewildered that his suspects his son of faking his illness out of fear. In the
end, he decides to call the manager of the boxing team.
QUESTIONS
-What do you think is going to happen after the father
discovers the truth?
-Mrs Willison mentions “her big night” referring to
the night her son was born. What was your “big night / day”?
-What do you know about Baroness Summerskill, Ingemar
Johansson and Marquess of Queensberry?
-There is a lack of communication between father and
son. According to you, should there always be complete frankness between
parents and children?
-In general, is “suffering” something profitable in
order to shape a person’s character?
-Is it essential for a teenager to come through a rite of passage?
-When, in your opinion, does pushing our children to
study, or play sports become necessary, and when does it become harmful?
VOCABULARY
short cut, dale, beamed, mittens, scrum, cramming,
trunks, catches, parried, bullet-headed, louts, take a grip, fit as a fiddle,
bout, M.A.
free-wheeling, haunches, fatigue, endurance, sullen, clambered, doggedly, physique, prone, rebellion, simultaneously, mittens, landmark, tournament, trials, acutest, satchel, to, limber, up, keened, louts, compel, appendicitis, jabbering, defensive, queries
