Word: chatworth
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Dates: during 1978-1978
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...Chatworth's adventures in cultural schizophrenia start when he is nine. As World War II begins, his family moves to the U.S., where he enrolls in a New Jer sey boarding school. Robbed of sharing England's finest hour, young Pendrid must suffer a blitzing from unruly students who find his accent and manners fruity. His charades of Churchillian courage only complicate his humiliations. Back in postwar England, Chatworth once again finds himself a foreigner. There he plays the American with painful results. But in the U.S., Chatworth has tasted freedom from his crusty English Catholic past...
...fact is that Chatworth's American schooling has left him rather ignorant. He must attend a "crammers," a seedy institution where a man named Jenkins teaches techniques for passing exams. Henceforth, Chatworth is pre pared to "Jenkins" his way through life. Everywhere but at Oxford, where, he dis covers, "you can't exactly Jenkins Oxford, because Oxford invented Jenkins. The whole system is a web of shortcuts so intricate they constitute an education...
Transatlantic Blues bubbles with such amiably jaded wit-on the modern church, the absurdities of "making it," celebrities as praise junkies, fake humility as an asset, indeed turning anything into an asset. Chatworth even considers publishing his confessional tape to "launch that new career as Mr. Honesty." The novel is a promising departure for Sheed too. It is much looser and more vigorously humorous than his previous fiction. As a parody of personality packaging and what happens when the package is unbundled, Chatworth may be, as the author says, "desolately cute." But his confusions raise an unsettling question...
...tattered pride. In fact, my whole array of virtues was intact; only the man behind them was missing. I didn't really give a damn anymore whether I was English or American, but the U.S. was still the prairie of record, the place where the garbled soul of Chatworth could re-create itself. Or failing that, become famous...
...clockwise counterpart. Before the cattle boats began disgorging secretaries, English voices were unheard between New York and the Gold Coast, and I had the best. So the old ladies who used to gush over my cute accent would now be made to pay through the nose for it. Young Chatworth gave a bitter laugh as he remembered how he used to flinch and try to hide that accent. Pah! Does the bearded lady shave? Does Tom Thumb lie about his height? Use it, boy. Sell anything...