Stephen Hayes reviewed Chocky by John Wyndham
None
4 stars
Back in the 1960s, when I was young, I read quite a lot of science fiction. and in many ways the 1950s and 1960s were vintage decades for science fiction. Later I rather lost my taste for it, or else the genre itself changed, and the newer productions did not appeal to me so much. One of the sf authors I liked most was [a:John Wyndham|36332|John Wyndham|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1343316104p2/36332.jpg]. I recently re-read a couple of his novels to see how well they had stood the test of time, and found them surprisingly old-fashioned. In hindsight, the writing seemed to have the flavour of the 1940s, very much mired in the time it was written, like the writing of [a:Nevil Shute|21477|Nevil Shute|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1547804311p2/21477.jpg].
But when I found [b:Chocky|161849|Chocky|John Wyndham|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1346679620l/161849.SY75.jpg|865014] in a second-hand bookshop, I was interested because I had not read it before, and it was also published later than most of …
Back in the 1960s, when I was young, I read quite a lot of science fiction. and in many ways the 1950s and 1960s were vintage decades for science fiction. Later I rather lost my taste for it, or else the genre itself changed, and the newer productions did not appeal to me so much. One of the sf authors I liked most was [a:John Wyndham|36332|John Wyndham|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1343316104p2/36332.jpg]. I recently re-read a couple of his novels to see how well they had stood the test of time, and found them surprisingly old-fashioned. In hindsight, the writing seemed to have the flavour of the 1940s, very much mired in the time it was written, like the writing of [a:Nevil Shute|21477|Nevil Shute|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1547804311p2/21477.jpg].
But when I found [b:Chocky|161849|Chocky|John Wyndham|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1346679620l/161849.SY75.jpg|865014] in a second-hand bookshop, I was interested because I had not read it before, and it was also published later than most of the others, in 1968, which was the year of student power and student revolution. So I wondered what the atmosphere of the story would be like. And it seemed to be describing British middle-class life in the mid-1950s.
In the story an 11-year-old boy, Matthew Gore, starts talking to an invisible friend. His parents are concerned, because though his younger sister had an invisible friend, it was at a much earlier age, and she had already got over it. Also, as the younger sister Polly informs the family, when she had an invisible friend, she talked to her friend, her friend did not talk back to her. Matthew, however, is heard arguing with his invisible friend as though the friend is talking back to him.
His parents are worried because "hearing voices" could be a sign of mental disorder, and their concern makes Matthew sometimes wonder if he is going mad. Then his teachers at school start complaining about his school work. He starts solving mathematical problems using unorthodoc methods, he argues with his geography teacher about the location of earth, and with his physics teacher about the speed of light.
The end of the story is predictable and slightly disappointing, and the thing I liked most about the story was the attitude and character of Matthew himself.
There is one other respect, however, in which the story seems dated, and especially not fitting its 1968 publication date, and that is the sexist language. I've read many other 1960s authors, and few of them are as sexist as this. Yet another characteristic that adds to the 1950s "feel" of the book.
