There is a line which has resounded through B-films, soap-operas and pulp fiction and it goes something like this: "Ned, wait!… Are you familiar with what are commonly referred to as the Greek mysteries?" There is a pregnant pause, and Ned whispers, in a tone somewhere between shock, anguish and determination, "No! And that won't stop me!" My first quote is taken verbatim from Mr Tryon's new novel (he is already famous for The Other, the other one), but I must admit to writing the second quote myself. The Ned is Theodore Constantine and indeed he doesn't let it stop him; his abysmal ignorance of classical ritual accounts for most of the plot of Harvest Home, and he wouldn't know a vegetation symbol if one got up and tickled him…. Who is Widow Fortune, and why does she keep crying "Drat!" and "Where in the nation!"? Is there something which the villagers will not or cannot reveal? And why is everything so damned rural? Read on, Mr Tryon keeps hinting, and you may see something nasty.
And indeed, eventually, we do. At first there is only the occasional glimpse of darkness visible; the villagers mutter about something called the "Waste" and at one of their simple country fairs there are enough phallic symbols to make an academic blush. But Tryon writes very discreetly, and the first climax comes almost without warning….
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Read the rest of this Criticism with our Tryon, Thomas 1926–: Critical Essay by Peter Ackroyd Access Pass.
