Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Greatly underrated.
Being a long term Mr Cronin's fan ever since my younger years, I must say that this is his best book.
His writing and his narrating skills were amazing.
The best thing, though, was the characters development.
First off, let me start with a talk about, the main character, the "Hatter" himself, Mr James Brodie.
Selfish, abusive, self indulged man who ruined his family and his life. He was racist, believed to c0me from a rather uneducated family, and therefore he believed in power, the type of power from the "Winton" that granted him the right to harass anyone underneath him.
Brodie was extremely delusional, a trait that showed both in him and his mother ( maybe father aswell).

The scene in the end, where James, a completely utter mess, a sad man sitting in his couch, quietly mourning as he glanced at the pale dead body in front of him never seems to stopped me from pitying a character that I spent most of the book despising on.
A delusional man who in the end, received a full tragic blow.

Best book, very depressing and I certainly don't recommend this tragedy to anyone who is already depressed, anyway it was a very worthy read and I loved it!!.