“A Fistful of Ashes” in a brief summary
John Beaver, a young man of twenty-five, lives in London at his mother’s house, which repairs and rents apartments. John at the end of Oxford, until the crisis began, he worked in an advertising agency. Since then, nobody has been able to find a place for him. He gets up late and almost every day sitting at the phone waiting for someone to call him to his house for dinner. Often at the last minute, if someone brings a gentleman, it happens. In the coming weekend, he is going to stay at the castle of Hetton from his recent friend Tony Last.
Having received a telegram from Beaver, Tony, who intended to spend a quiet weekend with his family, along with his wife Brenda and son John Andrew, does not express a special enthusiasm about his arrival, and to entertain the guest entrusts his wife. Beaver makes a good impression on Brenda and eventually even begins to seem to her an interesting interlocutor. Brenda has a desire to rent an apartment in London, and Beaver’s mother
The next day from Beaver to Hetton comes a telegram in which he reports that he was able to settle his affairs and is ready to accompany her to Polly. The mood at Brenda is clearly improving. For lunch in the restaurant, despite Beaver’s protests, Brenda pays. On the way to Polly, sitting in the back seat of a taxi, Brenda draws John to her and kisses. The day after the reception, the whole of London is just gossiping about
For three days Brenda returned to Hetton, to her husband and son, and then again under the pretext of the hassle of an apartment leaving for London. She calls Tony in the morning and in the evening, and most of the time she spends with Beaver. Soon she informs her husband that she wants to enroll in women’s courses in economics at the university and therefore she will have to spend a lot of time in London.
One day, Tony, missing his wife, without warning, goes to London. Brenda is unhappy with his unexpected arrival and, referring to his employment, refuses to meet with him. Tony goes to the club, where he and his friend Jock Grant Menzies get drunk and call Brenda all evening, which makes her angry. Returning to Hetton, Tony quarrels with his little son, who, missing his mother, throws a tired and irritated father with questions.
Following these events, two weekends in a row Brenda arrives in Hetton along with her friends. She is tormented by conscience, and she wants to be not alone, she experienced a love affair. She wants her husband interested in her new acquaintance, Jenny Abdul Akbar, who once was married to a Negro, a very eccentric but beautiful lady who tells everyone about her hard life. Tony, however, finds it tedious, and the novel does not work.
Somehow, when Brenda, as usual, in the absence, a hunting camp is arranged in the Hetton Forest. John Andrew, who already knows how to ride a pony, is allowed to attend. After the start of the hunt, the boy, under the supervision of the stableman Ben, is sent home. On the way back with the child there is an accident: the wayward horse of Miss Ripon, the neighbor Lastov, who also went with them, frightened of the exhaust of the moped, rises to her hind legs and, backing, hits John’s hooves to the head. The boy falls into a ditch. Death comes instantly. Until recently, full of fun home envelops the atmosphere of mourning. Jock Grant-Menzies, who was on the hunt, travels to London to report what happened to Brenda. Brenda at this time is a guest. Upon learning of the death of her son, she sobs bitterly. After the funeral, she quickly leaves Hetton and from London he writes a letter to Tony,
When the divorce in the role of the plaintiff stands Brenda, so it is more convenient. To arrange for Tony’s divorce, it is necessary that witnesses who observed his affair with some other woman be found at the court session. For this he finds in one of the bars some Milly, a girl of easy virtue, and goes with her to Brighton. They are followed by the detectives. Millie, not having warned Tony, takes with her her daughter, who constantly revolves around adults and pestering Tony with her requests and whims.
Upon returning to London, Tony has a serious conversation with Brenda’s older brother, Reggie, in which Reggie requires Brenda for alimony an amount that is twice the amount Tony can allocate. In addition, some more unpleasant facts are emerging, so in the end Tony refuses to give Brenda a divorce. She can not ask for it, since the testimony of Brighton witnesses is not worth a penny, because the room was always full of children and the girl slept both nights in the room Tony had to occupy. Instead of divorce, Tony decides to leave for a while and go on an expedition to Brazil in search of a lost city.
On the journey, Tony is accompanied by Dr. Messinger, an experienced researcher, although still quite a young man. While sailing to the shores of South America, Tony meets a girl named Teresa de Vitre after two years of schooling in a boarding house in Paris returning home to Trinidad. Between them there is a fleeting interest that disappeared from Miss de Vitre immediately after she finds out that Tony is married. Having landed in Brazil, Tony and Dr. Messinger come in contact with the local Indians and live for a while near their settlement, terribly suffering from bothersome insects, but hoping that the Indians will help them get to the tribe of the pays, which, although it is very cruel, seems to have some guidance on how to find Grad. Indians build boats for travelers and on the river deliver them to the border of the lands of the pays, and at night disappear without a trace. Next, Tony and the doctor are moving downstream on their own. On the way, Tony falls ill, he is feverish, high fever rises, and he spends many days and nights unconscious. Dr. Messinger is alone on his way to get Tony to help him as soon as possible. In the whirlpool, the doctor sinks, and Tony, barely recovering, in a half-witted state, makes his way through the woods and goes to the Indian village. There he meets old Mr. Todd, who does not know how to read, but he loves to listen when he read books, to a large extent left to him by his father, who was once a missionary who worked here. He cures Tony, but he does not allow him to leave, forcing him to read and re-read all books aloud. Tony has been living with him for almost a year in a hut. One day Mr. Todd lulls him to sleep for two days, and when Tony wakes up, informs him that some Europeans were looking for Tony and he gave them his watch, assuring that Tony died. Now no one will ever look for him, and Tony will have to spend his entire life in an Indian village.
Brenda, having learned that she is widowed, marries Jock Grant-Menzies, and Hetton, according to Tony’s will, departs to his relatives Lasty.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)