The Reading Group Reads...
UNDER THE EYE OF THE CLOCK
Despite torrential rain six of us gathered at my house to discuss Under The Eye
Of The Clock, by Christopher Nolan. Written when the author was 20 and first
published in the 80s, this book won the Whitbread prize and created much
interest.
Born with severe cerebral palsy and unable to communicate except by eye movements, the discovery that he could, after immense effort, use a type-writer with a pointer on his forehead and with his head steadied by his mother, was an electrifying escape from dumbness by the author and he used words with an almost drunken abandon. Several of us were irritated by his strange and, apparently affected, use of words and we were agreed that his changes from "purple prose" to ordinary writing were unsettling. However, his passionate desire to open a door of communication to others, condemned by their physical condition to a life of silence, could not fail to touch us. On the whole we were glad to have read it.