The Malcontents

by C.P. Snow, Carol Binch (Illustrator)

First U.S. edition bound in white cloth. A near fine copy in a very good dust jacket. Dust soiling to the edges of the book's upper page block. The dust jacket has rubs to its spine tips. Dust soiling to its panels.

Genres: Politics, 20th Century, Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1972

About the author

Known British scientist Charles Percy Snow, baron Snow of Leicester, wrote especially his 11-volume series Strangers and Brothers (1940-1970).

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._P._Snow

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that belongs to a different age. An age where a political scandal can be caused by an inconvenient fact. Where that scandal inevitably leads to the resignation of the politician concerned, especially if they are a cabinet minister. As a tale of today, the story simply doesn't work because politicians today shrug off scandal and need to be fired before they will resign.

The story is a tale of a group of young people, who are loosely friends, who find an inconvenient fact about a cabinet minister. The minister has a financial interest in some seedy housing in which immigrant families live in slum conditions. As I say, it belongs to a different time. There is no question that if the fact were to be made public, the minister would have to resign. The problem facing 'the core', as they are collectively known, is how and when to let the fact out.

The thing about leaking an inconvenient fact is the timing. The core have primed some national journalists, but the timing needs to be that which will cause the maximum embarrassment to the government. However, delay creates its own risks. As it happens, 'the establishment' is aware of the plot because one of the core is a police informer. The establishment won't allow things to happen without response and measures are taken to prevent the fact ever emerging. I like this dimension to the story.

There is a second weakness to the core - one of the group is a recreational drug user, who dabbles with selling as a side line. It's not that he needs the money, because he is a very rich young man, he just does it for the thrill of breaking the law. We have to remember, this story was set at a time when minor conviction for the possession of even a small amount of a relatively harmless narcotic would end a person's career prospects for the rest of their lives. The establishment know about the narcotics dimension because the informer has told them about it.

The book has a curious plot twist which doesn't fit at all well. At a gathering of the core, when cannabis is being taken, the informer just gets up, walks out of an open window, and falls to his death. This induces all sorts of paranoia because, by then, the core knows that there is an informer, but doesn't know who it is. The question faced by the core is whether the deceased committed suicide or whether he had been given a more potent substance, such as LSD, that caused this behaviour. We never find out for certain the truth behind this.

It provides an opportunity for the establishment to pounce. This is where the book becomes tellingly real. The core consists mainly of an upper middle class group of activists, most of whom are wealthy in their own right or very comfortably off. There is one member of the core who is working class - the son of a docker. The police investigate the wealthy member of the core who deals in narcotics, who eventually is fined for this activity. The police also search the flat of the working class member of the core, plant evidence in the property, which then secures a conviction for possession. Needless to say, he goes to prison. The remainder of the core are given a stern wigging down by their parents and continue their lives - and careers - scot free.

This has such a ring of truth to it. The establishment closes ranks to protect one of their own (the cabinet minister), then acts collectively to ensure that the sanctions are felt by the dispensable (the docker's son), and then closes ranks to protect the new generation of the establishment. I can almost see it happening.

What is compelling about the book is the author, a fully paid up member of the British establishment. I do wonder if he had seen this happen, perhaps not in quite the same way, but in similar circumstances? By the time the book was written, he was a member of the House of Lords after a career in public service and administration. Of course, it also helps that the author was very good at plot development and an extremely good writer.

It is a shame that this book is not more well known. It is very good, and has echoes today. However, it is a creature of it's time, and that time has passed. Perhaps that is why it is a minor work of the author?

[Jason ("jcreed") · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just got kind of bored of it. Snow's prose is competent but unexciting.

[Alise · Rating 3 out of 5]

The tension between college activists and their conservative parents, as well as the within-group differences between the activists who can afford to lose it all and those who cannot, still bears relevance to today. I picked this up browsing the stacks at the library and I enjoyed it.

[Advik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read that really captures the sense of passion and idealism of late 60s-era students, with some vividly drawn characters.

[Alex Lisle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do like Snow but this one was not the most engrossing, not that he goes in for high drama, and that's the appeal for me - the steady progression of the story, with a sprinkling of unfamiliar words that I need to look up the meaning of. At some point beyond the mid-point it dawned on me I was not going to learn what it was that this group of young idealists had been meticulously planning to perpetrate, and I rather like that - the story is about the people, not the action. But some 50 years since and what would have been then called radical all seems so harmless and tame now, just students imagining they can make a better society. So what has changed?

People still protest but does anyone believe in a better world emerging when rescuing the old one is proving such a daunting challenge. In this time of polycrisis it's clear we don't have the solutions, nor can we manage ourselves. So it's not a case of change this or tweak that and all will be well. We need the kind of help that's not within our gift to provide.

Saw a good cartoon the other day. A spokesperson asks a packed forum, "Who wants change?!" Everyone thrusts up their hand enthusiastically. The spokesperson then asks, "Who wants to change?!" Everyone keeps their hands down and avoids eye contact. Root out selfishness and greed and instil love and trust. But how to do that? History indicates not by any means we know how. But thanks to God someone does.

[Robert Premeaux · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good enough that I'm ready to dive into more Snow. Reads very much like Greene and Waugh ... simple, sparse language.