The Sussex Variations

Dooney’s is serializing, on a weekly basis, Brian Fawcett’s manuscript The Sussex Variations. Edited by Karl Siegler, this is one of the last books Fawcett completed before his death, from pulmonary fibrosis, on February 27, 2022. Fawcett is a founding co-editor of dooneyscafe.com since its inception in 2001.

This page functions as a table of contents for the serial, and will be updated as new chapters are published. 

The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars (Ch. 11): Death

May 8, 2023

Brian Fawcett thinks about death, on a pig farm in 1962, in the trenches of World War I and during the London Blitz. Ch. 11 of “The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars.”

The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars: (Ch. 12) Insolence

May 15, 2023

Brian Fawcett, coming of age on an English pig farm in 1962, reads Voltaire’s “Candide” and wonders if the whole world is sliding back into the perils of “blind faith.” Ch. 12 of “The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars.”

The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars: (Ch. 13) Doom

May 22, 2023

Brian Fawcett, coming of age on a Sussex pig farm in 1962, is trying to secure the facts in a world that seems doomed by nuclear weapons and a population explosion. Ch. 13: Doom, of “The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars.”

The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars: (Ch. 14) The Rules of Life and War According to Ronald Surry

May 30, 2023

Brian Fawcett learns the rules and wisdom of life and war, at least according to Ronald Surry, on a pig farm in England in 1962. Yes, a coming-of-age story but, more important, a story of coming-into-intelligence, which belongs to the world, not to the individual. Ch. 14 of “The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars.”