Reviewed by Ian
Show and Tell
Reviewed by Ian Show and Tell
This is a piece of descriptive writing about people who are involved in paedophilia.
If there is a plot here, I cannot find it! There are however two wonderfully descriptive paragraphs early in the piece that suggest that this writer has ability.
The structure of 'Show and Tell' is disjointed and has no rhythm. It appears to consist of three discrete, almost disconnected sections. Just when one is getting involved with what seems to be the central character, we are whisked off to an imaginary correspondence between Justice Yeldham and Ambassador Holloway, before returning to a roll call of victims of paedophilia.
There are elements here that could be welded into a story-around the mother, the brother and the child, perhaps. The letter in the middle does nothing except allow the author to present one of diatribes that HG Wells was so prone to stick into his novels. I think that this story is too short to carry it.
There is too much tell in 'Show and Tell' and not enough show, but readers - you have to read the piece about the mother if nothing else.
Reviewed by © Ian
Read Show and Tell
Return to.... SSC
