Reading a series of books by different authors in purely chronological order can make for some interesting contrasts from book to book. V. S. Naipaul's In a Free State was written with a rigorous, almost fierce austerity: at times, Naipaul included only the barest minimum--or less--of description of tone, of thought, of motive. By Comparison, John Berger's G., winner of the Booker Prize in 1972, overflows with description of the internal lives of the characters. At times, not only does the author prove points of view of all of the characters, but that of the author himself, anecdotes from the author's life, and side comments by the author about writing in general, and the present book in particular.
G. is the story of its protagonist, called either "the protagonist" or "G." throughout the novel. The illegitimate child of a wealthy Italian merchant and a privileged Englishwoman, born in the late 19th century, he is raised by neither of his parents but his mother's relatives. Due perhaps to his parentage, his upbringing, or a number of unusual childhood experiences, he grows into a man with unusual abilities: he can see people as they really are, and be seen by others for what he really is. He is a man who chooses to live without illusions of any kind.
And so, he becomes a seducer. Not for seduction's sake--he does not set to rack up carnal conquests. Not because he is fickle by nature--he seeks out women, not because he is indecisive, but because of his decisiveness. He does not deliberately try to inflame the jealousy of other men, nor is he oblivious to it. He is indeed aware of the fiancees and husbands that he cuckolds, but they simply aren't of any importance to him, even when they are bearing firearms. He does not lie to get women into bed--he speaks only the truth.
Though G. is an active player in his own life, he maintains a curiously impassive attitude. Or perhaps that it's that he's impassive towards the rest of the world, and he is solely concerned with the woman he currently loves.
He certainly seems impassive towards the world he lives in: whether it's a labor uprising in Milan, the dawn of aviation, or Italy's entrance into the first World War, he is unconcerned with the works and days of man--only a small subset of women occupies his interest.
And the central irony of all the vast amounts of mental and emotional description to be found in the novel is, we never really understand why G. does what he does. It would be acting out of compulsion, but he never seems to be compelled--he lives out of his own free will. Perhaps it's better to say that he sees a particular destiny for himself, allows that destiny to happen, and only at the end grows a bit desperate, because he does not see how that destiny can continue.
Overall, the novel can be rather tedious, with its constant switch of point of view and copious description of characters' thoughts. Sex is not at all romanticized--rather than being erotic, the author seems to go out of his way to make the descriptions vulgar.
The descriptions of the early days of aviation are nicely evocative of a period long past. Many of the side characters are beautifully constructed. Only G. remains elusive, a living plot device.
Next up: J. G. Farrell's The Siege of Krishnapur.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
In a Free State by V. S. Naipaul
In a Free State is a novel which isn't. It's better described as a short story collection (evidently, there was quite a bit of debate at the time whether or not the book should have been considered a novel--it came very close to not being considered for the award at all). There are brief introductory and closing vignettes, two short stories, and one brief novella. None of the stories have any characters or settings in common. All that ties them together is unity of theme: being exiled to a foreign land.
V. S. Naipaul, who would in 2001 win the Nobel Prize for Literature, is familiar with this sort of exile: his family came from India to Trinidad where he was born. Subsequently, he moved to England, making him a sort of double-exile. In In a Free State, he applies that experience to consider several facets of the colonial experience.
The book begins with an excerpt from a travel journal, telling the story of a passage by boat across the Mediterranean from Greece to Egypt. The ship is an intensely multicultural experience: it's all business, after all, and business must be done. In the end, it's not cultural differences which cause trouble--it's passengers violating the unspoken order of things.
"One out of Many" tells the story of a domestic servant from India who travels to Washington D.C. to care for his patron, a diplomatic official of relative unimportance. It begins as a conventional fish out of water story, as an inexperienced resident of Bombay travels to America, constantly causing disasters and leading a ludicrously poverty-stricken life. To mention that he survives, finds a much more profitable job, and eventually becomes a US citizen makes it sound like a rags-to-riches story of success, though it leaves out the major point that he hates his new situation.
The story "Tell Me Who to Kill" differs in that the central character travelled to a foreign land willingly--to find and help his brother. The unnamed narrator comes from a poor family somewhere in the Caribbean. His younger brother Dayo, the one member of his family who, it was decided, would be destined to succeed, travels to England to study. The narrator follows Dayo when it is apparent the younger man is in trouble, and works to finance Dayo's success. It all ends disastrously, though it's hard to tell precisely what happened--either the narrator killed someone, or the narrator took the guilt for Dayo killing someone--the reality of the situation merges with the Hollywood movies that narrator constantly talks about.
"In a Free State" offers the fewest details on geography of any stories in the book: essentially it's a story of a long journey by car from one unnamed East African city to another (a vast lake appears in the course of the book--if it's intended to stand in for Lake Victoria, then it might be taking place in Kenya, Uganda or Tanzania). There is a civil war either already started, or imminent and inevitable, between the forces of the "King" and the "President." The car is driven by Bobby, a gay civil servant, and the passenger is Linda, the wife of a co-worker. While violence looms in the outside world, the two in the car show increased irritation and verbal violence towards each other. At the end, there is a brief epilogue, another travel journal excerpt about a visit to Egypt, where the narrator is no longer able to tolerate the sight of a local guard threatening Egyptian children from getting too close to a tourist compound.
As Naipaul is a man of Indian ancestry and of Trinidadian birth, you might expect him to automatically side up on the side of the colonized, but that isn't necessarily the case here. He notes that decolonization oftend has ugly results, that the natives are not necessarily the pure, enlightened, simple folk sometimes lionized in fiction (in fact, apparently he has been criticized for opinions believed to be neocolonial).
He seems to sympathize more with the exiles in general, whatever their station, as so often, away from their original home, they try to turn their new country into their homeland, with little chance of success. The most important point is something Linda says in the main story: "It's their country, but it's your life." Being an foreigner does not rob you of all rights, whether you're a government official, a laborer, a cook, a prisoner, or a spouse, whether you're an immigrant or a colonist.
As much of In a Free State had to do with crumbling empire, it sadly suffered in comparison with Troubles by J. G. Farrell, which I had read immediately before. After the humor and rich characterization of Farrell's novel, Naipaul's work seemed dour and sketchy in comparison. However, in retrospect, the brevity of the work, the lack of unnecessary description make it bracing reading.
Next up is G. by John Berger.
V. S. Naipaul, who would in 2001 win the Nobel Prize for Literature, is familiar with this sort of exile: his family came from India to Trinidad where he was born. Subsequently, he moved to England, making him a sort of double-exile. In In a Free State, he applies that experience to consider several facets of the colonial experience.
The book begins with an excerpt from a travel journal, telling the story of a passage by boat across the Mediterranean from Greece to Egypt. The ship is an intensely multicultural experience: it's all business, after all, and business must be done. In the end, it's not cultural differences which cause trouble--it's passengers violating the unspoken order of things.
"One out of Many" tells the story of a domestic servant from India who travels to Washington D.C. to care for his patron, a diplomatic official of relative unimportance. It begins as a conventional fish out of water story, as an inexperienced resident of Bombay travels to America, constantly causing disasters and leading a ludicrously poverty-stricken life. To mention that he survives, finds a much more profitable job, and eventually becomes a US citizen makes it sound like a rags-to-riches story of success, though it leaves out the major point that he hates his new situation.
The story "Tell Me Who to Kill" differs in that the central character travelled to a foreign land willingly--to find and help his brother. The unnamed narrator comes from a poor family somewhere in the Caribbean. His younger brother Dayo, the one member of his family who, it was decided, would be destined to succeed, travels to England to study. The narrator follows Dayo when it is apparent the younger man is in trouble, and works to finance Dayo's success. It all ends disastrously, though it's hard to tell precisely what happened--either the narrator killed someone, or the narrator took the guilt for Dayo killing someone--the reality of the situation merges with the Hollywood movies that narrator constantly talks about.
"In a Free State" offers the fewest details on geography of any stories in the book: essentially it's a story of a long journey by car from one unnamed East African city to another (a vast lake appears in the course of the book--if it's intended to stand in for Lake Victoria, then it might be taking place in Kenya, Uganda or Tanzania). There is a civil war either already started, or imminent and inevitable, between the forces of the "King" and the "President." The car is driven by Bobby, a gay civil servant, and the passenger is Linda, the wife of a co-worker. While violence looms in the outside world, the two in the car show increased irritation and verbal violence towards each other. At the end, there is a brief epilogue, another travel journal excerpt about a visit to Egypt, where the narrator is no longer able to tolerate the sight of a local guard threatening Egyptian children from getting too close to a tourist compound.
As Naipaul is a man of Indian ancestry and of Trinidadian birth, you might expect him to automatically side up on the side of the colonized, but that isn't necessarily the case here. He notes that decolonization oftend has ugly results, that the natives are not necessarily the pure, enlightened, simple folk sometimes lionized in fiction (in fact, apparently he has been criticized for opinions believed to be neocolonial).
He seems to sympathize more with the exiles in general, whatever their station, as so often, away from their original home, they try to turn their new country into their homeland, with little chance of success. The most important point is something Linda says in the main story: "It's their country, but it's your life." Being an foreigner does not rob you of all rights, whether you're a government official, a laborer, a cook, a prisoner, or a spouse, whether you're an immigrant or a colonist.
As much of In a Free State had to do with crumbling empire, it sadly suffered in comparison with Troubles by J. G. Farrell, which I had read immediately before. After the humor and rich characterization of Farrell's novel, Naipaul's work seemed dour and sketchy in comparison. However, in retrospect, the brevity of the work, the lack of unnecessary description make it bracing reading.
Next up is G. by John Berger.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Troubles by J. G. Farrell
A colonial power, hated and feared by the natives. The colonizers are inclined to view the natives as dangerous, terrorists, sub-human. In their view, all of the natives are bad--well, maybe a few are all right, but you can never tell them apart from each other by looking at them.
A subclass of the natives see themselves as the buffer between the colonizers and the natives (and, quite incidentally, as the natural leaders of the natives).
There are also those who are more than happy to take advantage of confusion and fitful violence in order to enrich and empower themselves.
And most tragically, or perhaps, pathetically, the liberals: those who sympathize with the other side (usually colonizers sympathizing with the natives), and who defend them, even when it is not in their best interest to do so. Their actions are not appreciated or regarded in the least bit highly by the side they are defending, due to an unfortunate tendency to patronize instead of empathize--and ultimately the loyalties to the side they originally come from doom them.
The basic problem is that neither side wishes to view their counterparts as human, or at least, fully human. Liberals do acknowledge the humanity of their counterparts, but are unable or unwilling to do anything about it.
The sad part about what I've written is how many times and places it is applicable to: India, South Africa, Southeast Asia, Tibet, Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq.
Troubles, by J. G. Farell was published in 1970. As you might guess from the title and year of publication, it is indeed about Ireland--though not about the specific Troubles that were current that year. Rather, the novel is a period piece, set in the turbulent months just before the declaration of an independent Irish state.
Most of the novel takes place in a deteriorating hotel, the Majestic, in a remote part of Southern Ireland, on the coast of the Irish Sea. (That I was staying in an old hotel named the Majestic when I read the novel is a coincidence verging on the spectacular).
Major Brendan Archer is an Englishman, a recently demobbed officer from the trenches of the Great War. Too wealthy to actually need an occupation, he travels to the Hotel Majestic to visit a girl he met briefly before going off to war, who then subsequently appointed herself his fiancee. Although he never asked her to marry him, he does and did not object to this engagement, as he is very easygoing, and there was always a very good chance he might have died after all. But he survived the war, and so he goes to Ireland to end the engagement, one way or another.
Life at the Majestic turns out to be rather extraordinary: it's been decades since "better days"--so many years of neglect have gone by, the hotel is literally falling apart--holes in the plaster, in the roof, in the floors. Huge hosts of vermin and of cats virtually taking over some parts of the hotel. When some rooms become uninhabitable, it is easier simply to move to a new room than to try and fix the old.
The guests of the hotel consist mostly of elderly women who remember the hotel in better days. Why they themselves do not go on to better lodgings is partially due to habit, partially to nostalgia, and partially due to inability to pay. In effect, the Majestic has become a home for indigent widows.
The Major (as he is generally known throughout the novel) tries to speak to Angela (his fiancee) one-on-one, but finds it difficult to do so. Either she is already engaged in conversation with someone else, or she is not to be found at all. Much more accessible is Angela's friend Sarah, a rather caustic Irish girl who take a dim view of the British, but who the Major finds fascinating.
After a brief sojourn to Dublin, the Major decamps back to London for awhile to visit his elderly aunt, his only living relative. He is visited there by Sarah, who he finds more and more attractive. Eventually he returns to the Majestic, free of his engagement, and attempts, clumsily, to woo Sarah.
The 'Troubles', however, become a topic of tremendous importance, as acts of violence large and small occur across the island--the newspapers, it is pointed out, only write stories about the most appalling murders, while smaller crimes are printed in digest form. Edward Spencer, owner of the Majestic and father of Angela is militant in his opposition to Sinn Fein and the IRA, sure in his belief that only overwhelming violent force against the populace at large can win the day. The fact that he is unwilling, or perhaps unable to temper his rather extreme opinions in front of Catholic Irish indicate that his future in Ireland may meet an unhappy conclusion.
As the winter draws near, the hotel deteriorates faster and faster, and Edward, to the Major's discomfort becomes isolated and weird. Worse, Sarah seems as difficult to talk to as Angela had been previously.
The climax of the novel is a Spring Ball held at the Majestic: Edward, suddenly taking an interest once more in his hotel, has the building partially spruced up, invites prominent local families (primarily of the Unionist, protestant persuasion, of course), and throws a do like they used to have decades ago. Against all expectations, the ball goes well--at first. As the evening continues, things go off the rails, as the Major's relationship with Sarah comes to a head. Eventually, just about everything that could possibly go wrong, does.
The novel ends shortly before the end of the Irish War of Independence, with virtually everything destroyed that once was seen as permanent and unmoving.
At the time of its original publication, Troubles was not eligible for the Booker Prize. For the first two years of its existence, the Booker Prize was awarded early in the year, with the eligibility period being, primarily, the year before. In 1971, the award was moved to late in the year, with books published the same year being eligible. As a result, there was a window of several months in 1970 during which books first published then were not eligible for either the 1970 or 1971 awards. In 2010, the Booker Prize Foundation decided to correct that oversight by holding a "Lost" Booker Prize for books that fell within that window.
Troubles is definitely a worthy winner of the Lost Booker Prize. It's startlingly well-written with an array of distinct, vivid characters. The tone of the novel varies between sadness for a way of life going extinct, anger at the violence and low value of human life during the Troubles, and humor at the ridiculousness of trying to maintain a refined existence in the absurdly run-down hotel.
I was reminded of two other great novels when reading Troubles. The setting of a hotel where, it seemed, hardly anyone ever leaves was like a dissonant echo of Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, the difference being, in Mann's novel, the protagonist eventually leaves the (in much better condition) sanatorium in order to fight in the first World War--the same conflict the Major is returning from to begin his indefinite hotel stay.
It's also hard to think about the ball sequence without remembering a similar set-piece in Lampedusa's The Leopard, another novel about the violent death of the old order, though in the Italian work, the prince's ball ends considerably more successfully.
Troubles was a true pleasure to read, a very fine novel. I'm now looking forward to getting to the 1973 winner, The Siege of Krishnapur, also by Farrell, and, so I'm told, a sort of a prequel to Troubles.
Next up: the first Nobel laureate on the list: In a Free State by V. S. Naipaul.
A subclass of the natives see themselves as the buffer between the colonizers and the natives (and, quite incidentally, as the natural leaders of the natives).
There are also those who are more than happy to take advantage of confusion and fitful violence in order to enrich and empower themselves.
And most tragically, or perhaps, pathetically, the liberals: those who sympathize with the other side (usually colonizers sympathizing with the natives), and who defend them, even when it is not in their best interest to do so. Their actions are not appreciated or regarded in the least bit highly by the side they are defending, due to an unfortunate tendency to patronize instead of empathize--and ultimately the loyalties to the side they originally come from doom them.
The basic problem is that neither side wishes to view their counterparts as human, or at least, fully human. Liberals do acknowledge the humanity of their counterparts, but are unable or unwilling to do anything about it.
The sad part about what I've written is how many times and places it is applicable to: India, South Africa, Southeast Asia, Tibet, Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq.
Troubles, by J. G. Farell was published in 1970. As you might guess from the title and year of publication, it is indeed about Ireland--though not about the specific Troubles that were current that year. Rather, the novel is a period piece, set in the turbulent months just before the declaration of an independent Irish state.
Most of the novel takes place in a deteriorating hotel, the Majestic, in a remote part of Southern Ireland, on the coast of the Irish Sea. (That I was staying in an old hotel named the Majestic when I read the novel is a coincidence verging on the spectacular).
Major Brendan Archer is an Englishman, a recently demobbed officer from the trenches of the Great War. Too wealthy to actually need an occupation, he travels to the Hotel Majestic to visit a girl he met briefly before going off to war, who then subsequently appointed herself his fiancee. Although he never asked her to marry him, he does and did not object to this engagement, as he is very easygoing, and there was always a very good chance he might have died after all. But he survived the war, and so he goes to Ireland to end the engagement, one way or another.
Life at the Majestic turns out to be rather extraordinary: it's been decades since "better days"--so many years of neglect have gone by, the hotel is literally falling apart--holes in the plaster, in the roof, in the floors. Huge hosts of vermin and of cats virtually taking over some parts of the hotel. When some rooms become uninhabitable, it is easier simply to move to a new room than to try and fix the old.
The guests of the hotel consist mostly of elderly women who remember the hotel in better days. Why they themselves do not go on to better lodgings is partially due to habit, partially to nostalgia, and partially due to inability to pay. In effect, the Majestic has become a home for indigent widows.
The Major (as he is generally known throughout the novel) tries to speak to Angela (his fiancee) one-on-one, but finds it difficult to do so. Either she is already engaged in conversation with someone else, or she is not to be found at all. Much more accessible is Angela's friend Sarah, a rather caustic Irish girl who take a dim view of the British, but who the Major finds fascinating.
After a brief sojourn to Dublin, the Major decamps back to London for awhile to visit his elderly aunt, his only living relative. He is visited there by Sarah, who he finds more and more attractive. Eventually he returns to the Majestic, free of his engagement, and attempts, clumsily, to woo Sarah.
The 'Troubles', however, become a topic of tremendous importance, as acts of violence large and small occur across the island--the newspapers, it is pointed out, only write stories about the most appalling murders, while smaller crimes are printed in digest form. Edward Spencer, owner of the Majestic and father of Angela is militant in his opposition to Sinn Fein and the IRA, sure in his belief that only overwhelming violent force against the populace at large can win the day. The fact that he is unwilling, or perhaps unable to temper his rather extreme opinions in front of Catholic Irish indicate that his future in Ireland may meet an unhappy conclusion.
As the winter draws near, the hotel deteriorates faster and faster, and Edward, to the Major's discomfort becomes isolated and weird. Worse, Sarah seems as difficult to talk to as Angela had been previously.
The climax of the novel is a Spring Ball held at the Majestic: Edward, suddenly taking an interest once more in his hotel, has the building partially spruced up, invites prominent local families (primarily of the Unionist, protestant persuasion, of course), and throws a do like they used to have decades ago. Against all expectations, the ball goes well--at first. As the evening continues, things go off the rails, as the Major's relationship with Sarah comes to a head. Eventually, just about everything that could possibly go wrong, does.
The novel ends shortly before the end of the Irish War of Independence, with virtually everything destroyed that once was seen as permanent and unmoving.
At the time of its original publication, Troubles was not eligible for the Booker Prize. For the first two years of its existence, the Booker Prize was awarded early in the year, with the eligibility period being, primarily, the year before. In 1971, the award was moved to late in the year, with books published the same year being eligible. As a result, there was a window of several months in 1970 during which books first published then were not eligible for either the 1970 or 1971 awards. In 2010, the Booker Prize Foundation decided to correct that oversight by holding a "Lost" Booker Prize for books that fell within that window.
Troubles is definitely a worthy winner of the Lost Booker Prize. It's startlingly well-written with an array of distinct, vivid characters. The tone of the novel varies between sadness for a way of life going extinct, anger at the violence and low value of human life during the Troubles, and humor at the ridiculousness of trying to maintain a refined existence in the absurdly run-down hotel.
I was reminded of two other great novels when reading Troubles. The setting of a hotel where, it seemed, hardly anyone ever leaves was like a dissonant echo of Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, the difference being, in Mann's novel, the protagonist eventually leaves the (in much better condition) sanatorium in order to fight in the first World War--the same conflict the Major is returning from to begin his indefinite hotel stay.
It's also hard to think about the ball sequence without remembering a similar set-piece in Lampedusa's The Leopard, another novel about the violent death of the old order, though in the Italian work, the prince's ball ends considerably more successfully.
Troubles was a true pleasure to read, a very fine novel. I'm now looking forward to getting to the 1973 winner, The Siege of Krishnapur, also by Farrell, and, so I'm told, a sort of a prequel to Troubles.
Next up: the first Nobel laureate on the list: In a Free State by V. S. Naipaul.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens
Tolstoy pointed out that all happy families are alike, but all unhappy families are unhappy in their own way. Ultimately, there are going to be far more novels written about unhappy families than happy ones. Hey, nobody ever said that serious literature had to provide light entertainment.
The Zweck family in The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens is pretty miserable. The late matriarch of the family, Sarah, has been dead for years, but the mourning has never really stopped. Daughter Bella has grown old taking care for her family and has lost any chance of marriage she might have had. Youngest daughter Esther was disinherited for marrying a gentile. The father, Rabbi Zweck, finds himself unable to communicate with his children. And oldest son Norman is a drug-addled, mentally unstable failed former child prodigy, still living in his boyhood bedroom at age forty-one.
We first meet Norman in bed--a bed he inherited from his mother. At night he sees masses of silverfish crawling along the floors, turning his room into a filthy mess. That the silverfish are only a hallucination brought on by the massive doses of amphetamines he takes is a fact he refuses to admit.
His father and sister Bella are near the breaking point for taking care of this brittle man for so long, and make the decision, soon regretted, to have him committed.
While in the hospital, he is cleaned of the drugs--but finds a source on the inside, and soon is seeing silverfish around his bed there. During his stay in the hospital, there are many flashbacks to the lives of the family in earlier years, providing snapshots on how they became the way they are.
Bella and his father try many ineffectual ways to assuage their guilt for having institutionalized Norman, but essentially all of them end in failure, sometimes humiliatingly so: worst of all being the Rabbi's ill-considered attempt to confront who he thinks was the source who sold Norman the pills.
Finally, the family tries to use the crisis to bring them together--and for awhile, it appears as though it is working. In the end, however, nothing is resolved, and the family is broken utterly to a degree no reconciliation will ever fix.
Would it be shallow to dislike a work of literature merely because it has miserable characters, painful themes, an unhappy ending, and so on? Perhaps. Still, I don't think I'm being shallow in my dislike of The Elected Member. It's not that the characters are miserable as much as they revel in misery: they specialize in it.
Characters are deliberately non-communicative: they say something generic, think to themselves of the ugly truth they would prefer not to say, and congratulate themselves for not saying anything of importance. Meanwhile, the opposite party always knows what was meant anyway--speech in this novel becomes a pointless and annoying game of charades.
Gradually, the novel draws a portrait of the dead mother, and an unpleasant portrait it is: dishonest, self-centered, lacking in sympathy, lacking in humanity. It starts to become difficult to believe that this character could have been so important to so many people: she sounds monstrous.
But there is more than enough monstrousness to go around: an aunt who is a nurse is described as cheerfully enjoying the pain of others (unsubtly, she is named "Sadie"). It is implied she takes sexual advantage of patients in her care. There are doctors who can't be bothered to show up at the hospital where they work. And Norman himself, who manipulates his family, may have deliberately led a man to suicide, and, it is strongly implied, may have been engaging in incest.
But it's not unlikable characters and revolting behavior that makes this book a failure: it's that it all seems a formless mass. There's nothing compelling here. Misery does not ennoble characters nor literature. Art does, and there was not enough here.
If you want a portrait of a hellish mental hospital, forget this book, and read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest instead. And as authentic a portrait of London Jewish life this might be (the author was from a Russian Jewish family), the Yiddish is laid on a bit too thick. Ultimately, all the characters seem to be talking in comedy accents--though perhaps that's more my fault for being a fan of borscht belt comedians. However, how can one expect to write deathless prose for a character who speaks like a refugee from a Woody Allen film?
Next up, the "Lost" Booker Prize. Troubles, by J. G. Farrell.
The Zweck family in The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens is pretty miserable. The late matriarch of the family, Sarah, has been dead for years, but the mourning has never really stopped. Daughter Bella has grown old taking care for her family and has lost any chance of marriage she might have had. Youngest daughter Esther was disinherited for marrying a gentile. The father, Rabbi Zweck, finds himself unable to communicate with his children. And oldest son Norman is a drug-addled, mentally unstable failed former child prodigy, still living in his boyhood bedroom at age forty-one.
We first meet Norman in bed--a bed he inherited from his mother. At night he sees masses of silverfish crawling along the floors, turning his room into a filthy mess. That the silverfish are only a hallucination brought on by the massive doses of amphetamines he takes is a fact he refuses to admit.
His father and sister Bella are near the breaking point for taking care of this brittle man for so long, and make the decision, soon regretted, to have him committed.
While in the hospital, he is cleaned of the drugs--but finds a source on the inside, and soon is seeing silverfish around his bed there. During his stay in the hospital, there are many flashbacks to the lives of the family in earlier years, providing snapshots on how they became the way they are.
Bella and his father try many ineffectual ways to assuage their guilt for having institutionalized Norman, but essentially all of them end in failure, sometimes humiliatingly so: worst of all being the Rabbi's ill-considered attempt to confront who he thinks was the source who sold Norman the pills.
Finally, the family tries to use the crisis to bring them together--and for awhile, it appears as though it is working. In the end, however, nothing is resolved, and the family is broken utterly to a degree no reconciliation will ever fix.
Would it be shallow to dislike a work of literature merely because it has miserable characters, painful themes, an unhappy ending, and so on? Perhaps. Still, I don't think I'm being shallow in my dislike of The Elected Member. It's not that the characters are miserable as much as they revel in misery: they specialize in it.
Characters are deliberately non-communicative: they say something generic, think to themselves of the ugly truth they would prefer not to say, and congratulate themselves for not saying anything of importance. Meanwhile, the opposite party always knows what was meant anyway--speech in this novel becomes a pointless and annoying game of charades.
Gradually, the novel draws a portrait of the dead mother, and an unpleasant portrait it is: dishonest, self-centered, lacking in sympathy, lacking in humanity. It starts to become difficult to believe that this character could have been so important to so many people: she sounds monstrous.
But there is more than enough monstrousness to go around: an aunt who is a nurse is described as cheerfully enjoying the pain of others (unsubtly, she is named "Sadie"). It is implied she takes sexual advantage of patients in her care. There are doctors who can't be bothered to show up at the hospital where they work. And Norman himself, who manipulates his family, may have deliberately led a man to suicide, and, it is strongly implied, may have been engaging in incest.
But it's not unlikable characters and revolting behavior that makes this book a failure: it's that it all seems a formless mass. There's nothing compelling here. Misery does not ennoble characters nor literature. Art does, and there was not enough here.
If you want a portrait of a hellish mental hospital, forget this book, and read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest instead. And as authentic a portrait of London Jewish life this might be (the author was from a Russian Jewish family), the Yiddish is laid on a bit too thick. Ultimately, all the characters seem to be talking in comedy accents--though perhaps that's more my fault for being a fan of borscht belt comedians. However, how can one expect to write deathless prose for a character who speaks like a refugee from a Woody Allen film?
Next up, the "Lost" Booker Prize. Troubles, by J. G. Farrell.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Something to Answer For by P. H. Newby
There are a lot of unreliable narrators in fiction, but Townrow, the central character of Something to Answer For is a pretty remarkable example of the species. At first, one starts to think he's simply a serial liar, but soon it becomes apparent that he himself is not so sure what's true or not--and perhaps he is actually able to change reality based on his illusions.
The novel takes place almost entirely in Port Said, Egypt, immediately before and during the Suez Crisis of 1956: one of the traumatic events that signaled the end of Britain as an imperial power. Townrow, who had served in Egypt during World War II, is asked to return by the widow of a friend, who insists that her husband has been murdered. The novel is not mystery. Mystery novels are about resolving mystery, but this novel revels in it.
He arrives in Egypt, is shanghaied and brutally beaten, and spends most of the remainder of the novel in a haze, mostly of the alcoholic variety. There may have been a murder, an audacious plot to smuggle guns to Cyprus or Israel, death threats, a trip to a mysterious island paradise, and a disappearance, or they may all have simply been imagined or lied about. Or perhaps he's simply a spy with a highly elaborate cover story.
When Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal, suddenly Townrow, as an Englishman becomes persona non grata, except that he's conveniently become Irish. At least he thinks he is. He needs to check his passport to be certain of his own nationality.
Townrow is strangely honest, after a fashion. He doesn't lie for the sake of self-preservation or self-enrichment, but simply for lying's sake. Or perhaps it's all just a giant con, which it is, of course. What else is fiction but con artistry with a willing target?
Not a towering masterpiece, but an enjoyable read. The edition I read seemed to have a handful of spelling and punctuation errors, which was odd.
Reading Something to Answer For hasn't lit a fire under me to seek out further works by P. H. Newby--though instead, I am rather interested in reading more about the Suez Canal.
Next up: The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens.
The novel takes place almost entirely in Port Said, Egypt, immediately before and during the Suez Crisis of 1956: one of the traumatic events that signaled the end of Britain as an imperial power. Townrow, who had served in Egypt during World War II, is asked to return by the widow of a friend, who insists that her husband has been murdered. The novel is not mystery. Mystery novels are about resolving mystery, but this novel revels in it.
He arrives in Egypt, is shanghaied and brutally beaten, and spends most of the remainder of the novel in a haze, mostly of the alcoholic variety. There may have been a murder, an audacious plot to smuggle guns to Cyprus or Israel, death threats, a trip to a mysterious island paradise, and a disappearance, or they may all have simply been imagined or lied about. Or perhaps he's simply a spy with a highly elaborate cover story.
When Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal, suddenly Townrow, as an Englishman becomes persona non grata, except that he's conveniently become Irish. At least he thinks he is. He needs to check his passport to be certain of his own nationality.
Townrow is strangely honest, after a fashion. He doesn't lie for the sake of self-preservation or self-enrichment, but simply for lying's sake. Or perhaps it's all just a giant con, which it is, of course. What else is fiction but con artistry with a willing target?
Not a towering masterpiece, but an enjoyable read. The edition I read seemed to have a handful of spelling and punctuation errors, which was odd.
Reading Something to Answer For hasn't lit a fire under me to seek out further works by P. H. Newby--though instead, I am rather interested in reading more about the Suez Canal.
Next up: The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Mission Statement
Anything worth reading is worth writing about. And that is what this blog is for.
As you may have heard, NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month encourages people to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. I've attempted it (unsuccessfully) twice. I was considering doing it a third time, when I realized how few novels I actually read. This year so far, I've read a grand total of one novel: Lampedusa's The Leopard (which, by the way, is a masterpiece). How can I write fiction if I don't read it?
Around this time, I saw that the 2010 Man Booker Prize had been awarded (to The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson). I looked at this full list of Booker Prize winners, and I realized I had never read any of them. So I decided to read all of them. In chronological order.
First things first: I checked the local library's catalog. They had 38 of the 45 winning titles.
Then I checked the local used book stores. They had two more.
That left five to be purchased online. Luckily, Amazon makes it easy to purchase used books inexpensively.
I'm certainly not going to be able to read all 45 novels in 30 days. But I will read what I can, when I can, and post my impressions here.
So, let NaNoReaMo begin! First up: Something to Answer For by P. H. Newby.
As you may have heard, NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month encourages people to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. I've attempted it (unsuccessfully) twice. I was considering doing it a third time, when I realized how few novels I actually read. This year so far, I've read a grand total of one novel: Lampedusa's The Leopard (which, by the way, is a masterpiece). How can I write fiction if I don't read it?
Around this time, I saw that the 2010 Man Booker Prize had been awarded (to The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson). I looked at this full list of Booker Prize winners, and I realized I had never read any of them. So I decided to read all of them. In chronological order.
First things first: I checked the local library's catalog. They had 38 of the 45 winning titles.
Then I checked the local used book stores. They had two more.
That left five to be purchased online. Luckily, Amazon makes it easy to purchase used books inexpensively.
I'm certainly not going to be able to read all 45 novels in 30 days. But I will read what I can, when I can, and post my impressions here.
So, let NaNoReaMo begin! First up: Something to Answer For by P. H. Newby.
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