The Cowards Tale by Vanessa Gebbie

In an unnamed Welsh town (modeled on Twynyrodyn, Methyr Tydfil) close by the Kindly Light coal mine, a host of town characters has each their stories and their secrets. The life of the town is ever influenced by the tragedy at the Kindly Light 3 generations ago when an explosion cost the lives of many miners. That explosion sets the stage for the experiences of 3 generations of town folk. Amnong them is the beggar Ianto Jenkins, called Passchendaele, a joke to mark him as a coward (he wouldn't have lasted 5 minuets at Passhendaele). The stories of the town are told through the voice of the Ianto, as requested by the folk who line up at the cinema near to the steps of the abandoned chapel where Ianto lives on the bench and steps. The novel is full of warmth and sympathy for characters who live with the sins of their fathers and grandfathers, the loss of grandfathers in the Kindly Light, the traits passed down through generations. The Kindly Light is closed, the colliers all adrift now. Ianto survived that deadly mine explosion and sees himself as a coward for it. But he understands the life of the town better than any for knowing himself.

There is Baker Bowen, a chiropodist whose grandfather was once a baker. Philip "Factual" Philips, the librarian; the undertaker Simon "Tutt" Bevans who only walks in straight lines; Nathan Barthlomew the piano tuner whose grandmother went mad with grief; James Little the gas meter reader whose father was a thief; Thaddeus "Icarus" Evans, the woodworking teacher who has spent a life trying to carve a perfect feather out of wood; land many others whose intertwined tales are told by the beggar Ianto. All of them stilled touched by the Kindly Light tragedy.

The Cowards Tale invites comparison to other story cycles about small towns. There is Thorton Wilder's Our Town, Dylan Thomas's Under Milkwood, Sherwood Andersons Winesburg Ohio. Each in a way emphasizes the little stories of individuals as the strands of a town's story. The Cowards Tale stands out for the warmth that is shown to each character, and the careful delineation of the core traits and character. All invite our sympathy and care. In the townsfolk of today there is a modernity, as they each go about their lives in the present. But through the eyes and mind of Ianto Jenkins those who listen to his stories can come to see how the past has never left them. They little know how generations past have made them what they are.

As a moving evocation of a present-day Welsh town tied, somewhat unknowingly, to its past, this first novel by Vanessa Gibbie, is well worth a reading. Each character is worth caring about, each description both direct and poetic. Written in a straightforward yet lyrical fashion, Gibbie has devised a novel that stands comparision to some of our classics.