Library of Wales: The Alone to the Alone

The Alone to the Alone was first published in 1947. It came, Gwyn Thomas recalled, as the "last gasp of the first violent mood" of creation with which he had written his early masterpieces Oscar and The Dark Philosophers. The Alone to the Alone unites Gwyn Thomas’ lyrical and philosophical flights of narrative in a satire whose savagery is only relieved by irrepressible laughter. It is Gwyn Thomas' most shaped work: the underlying meaning of South Wales' history is not so much documented as laid bare for universal dissection and dissemination. The novel, with its distinctive plural narration, is a choric commentary on human illusion and knowledge, on power and its attendant deprivation, on dreams and their destruction. The Alone to the Alone is History as Carnival and, in Gwyn Thomas' unique voice, a comic vision of humanity that recognises no geographical boundaries.
The Alone to the Alone On a weather-beaten, windswept wall dug out in the backyard of nowhere, the men of the valley’s Terraces gather nightly to discuss “such topics as the right to work, real wages, imperialism and religion” during the inter-war years in south Wales. Poverty is stark, work scarce and the population in this corner of the world is grey and disillusioned by economic and social constraint. The Alone to the Alone is, however, a love story of sorts.
The discussions on the wall change direction slightly when Eurona, a young daughter of the Terraces, takes an interest in their views and starts asking questions about love.
Disappointed by their dismissal of this feeling as purely a means of keeping warm in winter, Eurona gets to experience its repercussions first hand when she falls head over heels for Rollo, a young, uniform-clad bus conductor on his way up in the world. What ensues is a tale of heartache, betrayal, revenge and determination set amid the harsh realities of life in the south Wales valleys during the first half of the 20th century. The bleak backdrop gives way to Gwyn Thomas’s dark humour, present in the quick wit of his characters and the frank, articulate observations of his narrator.
This novel, a reprinted classic of Welsh literature, speaks of a certain time in a specific place but the beat of its themes and the hum of its sufferings will resonate with readers the world over. Cyfnewidfa Lên Cymru/Wales Literature Exchange
Guardian Reviw 13 December 2008
Gwyn Thomas was the wit of the Welsh valleys and a popular Brains Trust panellist who observed: "There are still parts of Wales where the only concession to gaiety is a striped shroud." Set amid the grinding poverty of the Rhondda during the Great Depression, this anecdotal satire follows the adventures of Thomas's Dark Philosophers: village elders who sit on a wall discussing religion, imperialism and "whatever little stocks of wisdom that life had battered into us ...". What little action there is circulates round the friends' charitable efforts on behalf of Eurona, a plain village girl who needs new clothes to take up a domestic appointment "because wealthy folk who hire other folk to do their dirty work are kept so busy organising a cleaner world that they have no time for anything other than first impressions". Meanwhile, the Philosophers grapple with their ethics when offered employment as sandwich-board men for a stoutly Conservative grocer. The condemnation of capitalism comes over loud and clear, yet it's so resolutely low-key as to resemble a Welsh Last of the Summer Wine. Alfred Hickling -- Cyhoeddwr: Parthian Books