Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton (1947)

An aging spinster tries to survive the Second World War in a boarding house outside of London.

Book Review: Slaves of Solitude is about the loneliness that leads to hopelessness, so that eventually one no longer attempts to escape the solitary island, to take action, to try. Hamilton goes deep into the human condition focused on our Miss Roach (a Kafka reference?). The various characters, residents of the boarding house, have their own layers of personality, but all play off Miss Roach as seen through her multifaceted eyes and fear of life. She's sensitive to the point of paranoia. She has too little skin between her and the world. Although she tries to stay safely insulated to avoid hurt, the rough and tumble of life (all during war-time) somehow pokes through in the forms of a German expat, an American soldier, and an old bully of an English pensioner. The etiquette of the boarding house is shown in stark relief against the chaos of the war-time pub culture. Miss Roach dwells and obsesses about comments, actions, circumstances, soon becomes caught inside her own head. She doesn't act the way the reader might, she's not highly intelligent or educated or traveled, has led a limited life. But as do most people she does the best she can at the time. Which is the point. Other people do not do as any other person might, they do their best and do what their life up to that point has led them to do, and that action continues to lead them down their path. She can only follow her own path, not that which the reader would choose for her. For a novel about lonely Britons, Slaves of Solitude is a riveting, quick read with a fair coating of humor over its serious heart, laughing to keep from crying. I suspect many readers will find it easy to identify with Miss Roach. I'd never heard of Patrick Hamilton (1904-62) until I watched a film, the demented Hangover Square (1945), on late night television and saw he was the author of the source novel. Then I found Slaves of Solitude, a (to me) lost masterpiece. Most lost classics aren't. Whether songs, books, or movies most championed obscurities are unknown for a reason. Patrick Hamilton is the rare exception. Hamilton was a classic troubled author who wrote the original works on which the films Rope, Gaslight, as well as Hangover Square were based. All three reeking of paranoia,  murder, and madness. All redolent of loss.  [5★]