Book Review: "The Rock Pool" by Cyril Connolly

I found this book whilst searching amongst old penguin books in my mother's home. I have this thing about taking old books that look a bit tattered and reading them to see what all the fuss was about. This was certainly the case with The Rock Pool because I honestly had never heard of the book or the author before. I was interested in it (and I shudder to think it too) because of the cover - it looked so much like it should be a scene in Brideshead Revisited or something. I love books about wasteful rich people at the decline of the aristocracy. Here we go...

The protagonist, Richard Naylor, is an English literary critic in his late twenties who arrives at the small, dying French coastal town of Trou-sur-Mer. He intends to use the town as a setting for his planned book on social decay, observing the characters around him and documenting their flaws and foibles. He sees the town as a "rock pool" — a stagnant, isolated environment where the remnants of society's better days are visible, but slowly decaying. Now, you cannot tell me that this is not a Evelyn-Waugh-meets-Raymond-Radiguet treat for the reader. The opening is so slowly sensational that you really do get to breathe in those surroundings.

Upon settling in the town, Naylor finds a collection of disillusioned expatriates, failed artists, and various misfits, all clinging to their past glories or engaging in self-destructive behaviours. The town itself, once a thriving resort, is now a shadow of its former self, a place where people drift aimlessly, disconnected from any larger purpose. Naylor begins to see himself as an outsider, observing these characters with both disdain and fascination. The author paints the town as this place that is definitely a 'has-been' town with people just drifting all over the place. The fascination of the main character often turns to snobbery and complaint which though it makes us hate him - it is just so good to read. I don't know why I love novels like this but it is so brilliantly written I cannot help myself.

Among these deviants and drifters is an artist named Gregor, whose work is waning in importance, and an ageing poet who has lost both his creativity and his relevance. Naylor’s interactions with these figures only deepen his cynicism and sense of superiority, but he becomes enmeshed in their lives as he seeks material for his book. I cannot help but think whether the name Gregor being this aimless failure of a man is somewhat a reference to Franz Kafka's infamous main character - Gregor Samsa. They both have this same void within themselves and this disillusionment with society and all its strategies.

Initially determined to remain detached and intellectual, Naylor soon finds himself drawn into the excesses of the town. He participates in decadent parties where drugs, alcohol, and casual sex are commonplace. Naylor’s initial observation of the community as an anthropologist transforms into active participation, as he becomes part of the very lifestyle he initially intended to criticise. As the book moves on, we can definitely see Naylor turn from this quite proper young man into a more Sebastian Flyte kind of character. And from Sebastian Flyte, he turns into Dorian Gray and all the other decadents from the previous era.

As Naylor's personal life unravels, so does his relationship with the people in the town. His supposed friendships with other expatriates turn out to be shallow and insincere. They mock him behind his back for his naïve idealism and intellectual pretensions. Naylor's sense of isolation grows as he realises that the people he thought he was studying are, in fact, no different from himself — trapped in their own cycles of despair and self-destruction. This is not even the last of it, the book goes through so many different people who Naylor becomes involved with. It is enthralling as it is strange and deviant.

All in all, this book was a wonderful mixture of a whole host of things. But I think that mostly it is about how one man with a shaky conscience went out of his way to try to stay on the outside of this society he found confounding due to his personal inhibitions and then, almost as if he knew nobody was watching anymore - he indulged in the hedonism available. He completely let go and self-destructed.