Thunder on the Left

Left for a moment alone at a birthday party, the children make a pact never to grow old; in the very next scene we encounter a married couple, two of the partying children, married, a bit dissatisfied with life and hungry for the excitement of love and youth. Into this world and the lives of their own children steps a strangely naive and innocent man, Mr. Martin, who transforms their ordinary lives, returning them to a world of love, adventure, and magic. But all threatens to come crashing down upon them as they gradually perceive who Mr. Martin actually is: the child from the party who demanded their promises of eternal youth. Suddenly the past, demanding its priorities, endangers the lives of their own children, and they must outwit their own innocent commitments in order to allow the next generation to exist. Beautifully written, with a lush use of language and interior monologue that reminds one of Virginia Woolf, this book, a best-seller upon its original (1925) publication, evidences Morley's exceptional talent as a fiction and mystery writer. Perhaps best known for his novels Parnassus on Wheels and The Haunted Bookshop, Morley was a true American wit and author of over seven novels, several books of essays, poetry, and plays. Born in 1890, Morley died in 1957.