A.J. Cronin's novels

[munley]

Anyone here a fan of his novels? Or even heard of him?

If not, he was a Scottish physician (lived 1896 - 1981) whose novels have a sort of Dickensian social conscience without so many extra characters with their own stories. They read like mysteries, though literary in style -- not extensive navel-gazing with nothing happening.

Stumbled upon my first Cronin novel a few weeks ago. Now I'm on my third one.  A really strong point, I find, is the way he lets us follow the turns of a character's mind while keeping it from going into a purely abstract, argumentative realm. One of the ways he does this is with very concrete similes and metaphors that mirror the character's turns and nuances of mind. He is probably a bit longer on some descriptions than some of today's readers might want, but I think serious literary writers could learn a lot from him.

He writes some very long sentences, but they are so well structured, that they are not likely to lose anybody.

[LateToTheParty]

I don't know from this guy but I want you to review my book when  I get published. Very well done.

[Tabris]

Masterpiece Theater did The Citadel and ...  Ugh, I'm losing the name of the other one. (The Keys of the Kingdom?) I really enjoyed The Citadel, but I thought the ending was too sad. I bought the book but then never read it.