Pebble in a Pool by William Taylor ONZ ~ 2024 Revised Book Review

I FIRST READ Pebble in a Pool in 2005, re-read it and read it again; then loaned it to friends who were equally inspired. I purchased further copies as my own tended not to come back. The freshness in the writing was as vivid as ever.

If I thought my father was finished, I was mistaken.

The physical battle may have been over, but the outpouring of righteous fury had only just begun. “You... You have brought shame and dishonor on my name, on the name of your mother and on this house. There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel, the pastor intoned. That you... You foul creature have done this to me! You filth. You utter filth... ... And still he didn’t stop, “ ‘And in hell he lift his eyes, he cried and said, have mercy upon me...’ Ha! There is no mercy for flesh like yours! Filth!”

It is why the second anthology, Meanderings, published by Spiderwize in October 2011, carries the Commendation to the author of Pebble in a Pool, William Taylor ONZ.

I have a very tenuous Christian faith, definitely outside the box, definitely not inside the box where the hero/victim of the story, Paul Carter, tends to hang out. If ever one wishes to see the evil of religious indoctrination of children that demands blind obedience and literal acceptance of whatever creed is being propagated by unworldly parents, then look no further than Taylor's work.

William Taylor's work resonated with me because I was extricating myself from the horror of Christian fundamentalism that I had unwittingly slipped into in the 1990s to the horror and distress of my whole family.   

Those were dark and evil times.

How could a healthy belief in basic Christian principles become so jaggedly sharpened, narrow-minded, warped, and thoroughly destructive?

Though I have never been subjected to the physical abuse that peppers this book, I can certainly testify to the extreme narrow-mindedness of many fellow Christians, not to mention pastors, who would suddenly launch into preach mode, coming out with endless literal quotations of scripture but not spoken as the Word of God in context, a horrid twisting of the truth, a rant into the ruddy rafters above. Those rafters must have stunk like dead perfumes, for that is how I regard all religious self-righteousness of all religions.

Adrian Vanderlaar before Lauren’s death

Adrian Vanderlaar ~ sportsperson, party person, drinker, smoker, and class stud is now a vegetable in Everton Hospital.

When the most popular blond couple in a school gets whacked, all hell breaks loose. Everton High is no exception.

I have said before that this book should be on the curriculum of every school because the book is worthy of a screenplay. After all, what it deals with is still everywhere twenty years after its first publication in 2003.

But I might as well say that to the sky. In 2023 we live in perilous times, very dark times, very evil times. We have only to look at Uganda.

Back in 2005, in our regular correspondence, the author explained why he had published in the USA and not his own country, New Zealand, where the novel is set.

In 2023, that year of 2005 is already a lifetime away. To the 18-year-old of today, I would say watch and beware. It was bad then. It is infinitely worse now.

Steven Peterson

“Just a little bit sore.”
"I’m not surprised. I’ve seen one or two hammerings in my time but…oh, well. Shit happens, as the bishop said to the nun. Walk up and down a bit…right. Now come here!

This guy could give orders! “What now?”

“Waggle your fingers.”

…

Today, we watch democracy slowly receding across America, that odorous bible-belt tightening its grip on national life; I am not confident of that country's future. They tread the path another nation trod, its start date 1933. Exaggeration? I wish it were. American democracy was pillaged and raped between 2016-2020, pillaging and raping by one man that carried on right up to 6 January 2021, with seventy million people going into orgasmic fervour. They did that, too, in 1933.

The characters and personalities of this short novel are true to life, authentic, writing as a former police officer, a retired lawyer, ex-reserve armed forces, and of course, gay. These fictitious characters exist in every country, in every religion, and in real life.

I know too that those who are the most homophobic in society are often the very same people who, behind closed doors, are very active, the little heinrich himmlers, I call them.

Vanderlaar

Wheelchair bound, sober-minded facing the High Court Judge upon being sentenced for manslaughter .

A little earlier to his one friend, Paul Carter…I’ve packed my bag. Reckon I’ll be put away.

Birthday Boy ~ 18

Paul Carter, after having been hauled off to town for an 18th birthday present makeover, by order!

Another much earlier work by Taylor is Jerome. Published on 12 October 1999, one might think that this is now way out of date. But it centres upon a series of Emails between three people at a time when email was still very new and certainly not the mainstay of daily communication we know today.

Read it. Its bluntness makes it even more potent than Pebble in a Pool. I prefer Jerome, but it in no way detracts from Pebble in a Pool.

5 January 2024
All Rights Reserved

© 2024 Kenneth Thomas Webb

LIVERPOOL

First Reviewed 2005
Reviewed Afresh in 2010, 2023and 2024

Commendation by the Author in Meanderings published October 2011
to William Taylor ONZ