cover image The Journeying Boy: Scenes from a Welsh Childhood

The Journeying Boy: Scenes from a Welsh Childhood

Jon Ewbank Manchip White. Atlantic Monthly Press, $21.95 (318pp) ISBN 978-0-87113-460-8

In this affecting odyssey, White ( The Land God Made in Anger ) returns to Cardiff in his native Wales, a city much changed since his boyhood. In clear, emotionally charged prose, he considers Wales's ancient past, its English conquerors, the Celtic language and facets of the singular national character. A poor, tough people, inherently romantic and mystical, buoyed by their music and proud of their King Arthur, the Welsh claim an unusual number of famous figures, we're reminded. In White's theorizing, such achievers as Dylan Thomas and Richard Burton die before their time from drink, unable to live with the hurts inflicted by four centuries of British domination. (Aug.)