Ahhhh, I love this period of fiction. It's that John Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath 1930s & 40s mode of story-telling that gets me every time. The novels of this era, understandably, smack of impotent, latent, restless rage that sits over every thing in them. You feel it in the heat, the hunger, the skinned knees and broken hearts - everyone of which carries the weight of defeat greater than itself.
This particular novel is home to an eclectic grab-bag of characters. John Singer is a deaf mute who works engraving intricate patterns into silver. He is bereft of his best friend, another deaf mute, and left lonely and heartsick in his small town. He becomes the confidant of a host of characters - to the heroine Mick Kelly, the Marxist doctor Benedict Mady Copeland, the alcoholic socialst labourer Jake Blount, and the man in the middle Biff Brannon. None of these characters is resolved to their lot and in this novel we watch them do battle with themselves and each other.
For me, one of the most touching moments in the book involves Mick. The Kelly's are a poor family with not much going for them, but Mick has somehow happened upon a passion for classical music and composes symphonies in her head. In her dusty, stifling, out-of-the-way town, she dreams of playing piano and going abroad. She's playing around in a building site one day and graffitis "Mowtzart" for Mozart on an unfinished wall and at this point it's heartbreaking to think of the distance she'd have to travel to live out her dream. This vignette is emblematic of the gulf between the reality and the dreams of all of these characters.
"Please mind the gap between your aspirations and your observations."
Loved it. Thanks Carson.
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This may be the best title of a book EVER. So evocative and so perfectly encapsulating the notion that our hearts will lead us into strange territory, many times defying logic.
ReplyDeleteSo it seems we have polar opposite taste in book eras - I tend to hate books from that period! I find them obtuse most of the time....will this book prove me wrong?
Fo'real - that's what first attracted me to it. I think it's also saying that, ultimately, you heart has to go it alone.
ReplyDeleteThis book isn't obtuse, but I do think you'll find some of the more socialist-rant sections somewhat, ah, slow. But the characters! And the sadness!