For three-fourths of the way the voices of the two narrators alternate. Ozzie's and whose given name is significantly left unrevealed, revenge is all. To Snyde/Mole, whose underclass origin has closed off St. He, of course, is the white king, his chapters headed by that graphic.įor Straitley, who is deeply respected if not universally loved by his colleagues and both respected and loved by his boys, true grain is loyalty. Chips figure - the lone remnant of the old order, Roy Straitley, Latinist. Also on that page the author denies readers one kind of suspense by revealing that murder lies just ahead.įor 300 of the book's 400 pages we are privy, in telling dramatic irony - that is, the reader knowing, the characters, except for the black pawn, in the dark - to interior games between Snyde, the destructor, referred to by the unaware victims as "mole," and a much more chipper Mr. Oswald's Grammar School by crossing with insidious intent the boundary lines of class. The first page of Gentlemen & Players leads off with a graphic of a significantly black pawn, and the chapter allows the porter's child, the black pawn, to declare war on St. Knowledge of chess, while not a prerequisite for enjoying Harris' astonishing novel, might be a help in sorting out the action, especially at the end.
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