Sir, - In a review of Through the Dark Labyrinth: A Biography of Lawrence Durrell, (May 9th) Brian Fallon, for starters, gets the title wrong. It's not "a" Dark Labyrinth.
Mr Fallon is quite entitled to his personal preferences; he obviously likes neither Durrell nor Miller. But he should at least have his facts straight. While Durrell's reputation was greatly enhanced by the publication of The Alexandria Quartet, it did not quite "blow up like a bubble" as the reviewer states. Durrell had established quite a considerable reputation before 1957 with Pied Piper of Lovers, Panic Spring, The Black Book, The Dark Labyrinth, White Eagles Over Serbia; and several fine travel books and five collections of poetry.
It is wrong to say that "relatively few read his novels today". Virtually ALL his novels are currently in print, in eight languages. What exactly does the cliche "of their time" mean in relation to the travel books? Literary bafflespeak. If any writer is truly "of his age", or "his time", then that is good. For ages similar to his own will recur and he will return to haunt them with his comments. Cyril Connolly appreciated this when he wrote: "We come mentally of age when we discover that the great minds of the past, whom we have patronised, are not less intelligent than we are because they happen to be dead."
But Mr Fallon saves the unkindest cut of all for Durrell's great friend and mentor, Henry Miller, when he refers to the "now-unreadable Henry Miller." This will come as a surprise to the thousands of Miller readers throughout the 11 countries where his books are still in print and constantly being re-printed. Indeed, few writers, of any epoch, are more readable than Miller. In The Rosy Crucifixion, Miller wrote: "When one is trying to do something beyond his known powers, it is useless to seek the approval of friends. Friends believe in you only in so far as they know you; the possibility that you are greater than you seem is disturbing, for friendship is founded on mutuality". For a writer to continue to keep his friends he must contribute to the continuing triumph of mediocrity. Neither Durrell nor Miller could do this. They believed (as I do) that a writer's first duty to his/her reader was to, metaphorically speaking, take their clothes off in public. That makes them not just "of their time", but of all time.
I am currently writing a book, Brief Encounters, for publication in the Fall by New Island Books. Among the 16 essays in the book are essays on Durrell and Miller. I met them in the 1960s; both meetings truly empathic experiences. - Yours, etc., Bill Long,
Glenageary, Co Dublin.