“Who knows what passions are broiling…”
Tropic of Ruislip is a witty novel takes the reader on a jaunt through the suburbs of London–exposing the dreams, crushed hopes, passions and lusts that lurk in the breasts of the average homeowner of Plummers Park. The residents of Plummers Park live on streets with exotic names–such as–Upmeadow, Cowacre, Sheep-Dip, the Sluice, and Bucket Way. As if that isn’t bad enough, the proud homeowners also christen their homes with preposterous names such as “Khartoum,” “Dobermann Lodge,” and “High Sierra.” The residents of the Plummers Park housing estate are also somewhat derisively and collectively known as “Flat-Roof Man,” and while that name is derivative of the homes there, it also correctly implies that the race that dwells in this particular estate is a “type.”
The inhabitants of the Plummers Park Estate reluctantly rub elbows with their neighbours–the inhabitants of the local council housing area. The council houses, however, are appropriately located at the bottom of a hill–whereas the private, and more affluent homes approach the skyline. The boundary between the private homes and the council houses is wasteland–a single road that leads to the railway station. The two very different housing estates do not usually mingle, and the residents of the council estates are viewed as undesirables. The snobbish owners of the Plummers Park homes are petrified that their little kingdom of bourgeois perfection will be infiltrated, soiled or sullied in any way. So while the Plummers Park residents are prepared to fight off intruders, they embrace their own–and often with hilarious results.
The protagonist of the novel is Andrew Maiby (pronounced Maybe), and he waffles just as his name implies. He lives on the Plummers Park Estates with his wife Audrey and his daughter. Andrew is a reporter for a small local newspaper. And there’s a lot to report–a geriatric shoplifter, hamsters living in couches, an eccentric artist, adulterous trysts, a black body stocking, a scandal at the local golf course, and a nimble flasher who haunts the Plummers Park Estates. A great proportion of his thoughts are directed to the unanswerable question as to why he ran off with another woman–only to return to his wife. And she’s waiting for the next event. The next event comes along in the person of Bessie–a tough young girl from the council houses–and she’s prepared to stop Andrew from printing his story on her Grandfather, the addle-pated kleptomaniac.
Leslie Thomas–who is perhaps best known for his novel The Virgin Soldiers (and there was a film made from the novel), lampoons the middle classes unmercifully while ridiculing the preciousness of all that is held dear. There are some truly wonderful characters in this book–bored Andrew who looks at oncoming middle-age and wonders just how he got here (and how he can leave). Mrs Polly Blossom-Smith, the avant-garde artist whose nude statue awaits the final touches–and for that she needs the cooperation of the elusive flasher, and Ena Grant, the supremely unhappy wife of the insensitive Simon who treats her like “some luxuriously upholstered vehicle tethered for use once the discussions had concluded.” And then there’s Gomer John, who runs the sub-post office and longs to run away and join the Navy, but his mum won’t let him.
His Futile Preoccupations ..... 