T.H. White Review: Success or Failure

I unloaded on White over “A Sharp Attack of Something or Other,” comparing the story to a weak version of a John Collier or Roald Dahl story. Even in death, White has the last laugh as “Success or Failure” turned out to be a creative and strong version of a Collier or Dahl story.

The story follows a British school teacher and her suffering husband who decide to create an imaginary child. For years this is a solace to the childless couple, but when the teacher begins to project her own prejudices and hate into the imaginary boy, she seals her own doom.

“Success and Failure” takes an odd but plausible concept and carries it to a bizzare but feasible conclusion. It’s the sort of ending that I didn’t see coming at all but, after finishing the story, it seems both obvious and inevitable. After eight pages of the couple imagining their son’s life, there wasn’t a hint of climax or conclusion. Then in the last 41 words, White worked out the resolution.

I don’t want to give away the ending because, like Algernon Blackwood’s “The Whisperers,” the entire story relies on the reveal. Other than that, it has nothing in common with “The Whisperers.”

As I wrote before, the style, tone, and general subject matter are similar to John Collier and Roald Dahl. However, with “A Sharp Attack of Something or Other,” it felt like White was just mimicking them. With this story, White earned the right for readers to think that John Collier and Roald Dahl’s style was similar to White’s, not the other way around.

As twisted suspense, this holds up to Dahl’s best examples, “The Landlady” and “Lamb to the Slaughter” (I still think John Collier is the best at this but I doubt if he could write a King Arthur story like White).

I had reservations about this collection but “Success or Failure” alone should make up for it.