Sandra: This was a rather difficult book to read but was at the same time enjoyable. I think Thomas Wolfe was a great writer and maybe this is a great book. It is a complex tale of young Eugene Gant growing up in the mountains of North Carolina at the turn of the 20th century and the story of his very complicated relationships with his parents and siblings. There is not a lot of action here but a wealth of insight into people.
Eugene is on the same journey as many of the protagonists in the books on this list. He wants to find out who he is and what his purpose in this world is. He is an unusually observant and perceptive child who grows into a complicated man. He has a keen imagination and a sense of his differentness that isolates him. He learns at an early age “to project mechanically, before the world, an acceptable counterfeit of himself which would protect him from intrustions” and “…he saw his life down the solemn vista of a forest aisle, and he knew he would always be the sad one: caged in that little round of skull, imprisoned in that beating and most secret heart, his life must always walk down lonely passages. Lost. He understood that men were forever strangers to one another, that no one ever comes really to know any one…” I think this eloquently and achingly describes Eugene.
Wolf is extremely adept at describing every character in this book. And it is full of characters. Eugene’s mother, Eliza – In an anecdote about a “perfectly good” pair of shoes his brother Ben buys but doesn’t like because they hurt his feet, Eliza insists Eugene wear them even though they are too small. Eugene wears them for six weeks until “his feet were numb and dead, sore on the palms” so Ben finally knocks him down and physically takes them off. In a few days he can “walk with ease again. But his toes that had grown through boyhood straight and strong were pressed into a pulp, the bones gnarled, bent and twisted, the nails thick and dead. ‘It does seem a pity to throw those good shoes away,’ sighed Eliza.” This is the epitome of Eliza.
The father, Gant, makes his living engraving tombstones and making grave markers but is also a drunkard who sets off many of the boisterous family rows that occur. Eugene finds his father’s “exhibitions, these wild denunciations and cowardly groveling in propitiation of a God none of them paid any attention to in health, ugly and abominable.”
Eugene has several siblings and they each have their own unique personalities and problems. This family is beyond my understanding but perhaps they love one another. There is an incredible amount of animosity, hatefulness, and game playing that results in all kinds of scenes. But somehow at the end of these emotional episodes they calm down to a sort of familial peace “…they were like those who have been mad, and who will be mad again, but who see themselves for a moment quietly, sanely, at morning, looking with sad untroubled eyes into a mirror.”
I will say again that I find Wolfe to be an extraordinary writer. I really loved many passages of this book. He goes on for pages and pages sometimes just describing the town and every person in every house. There is a scene where Ben is getting ready to deliver papers early in the morning where the town and its inhabitants are described so fully you feel as if you are walking the town with Ben. There are many similar scenes.
All the issues of the day are dealt with so there are some dated references to Negroes post-slavery, the Great War starts and finishes during the narrative of the book and the universal subjects of religion and politics are examined. I recognized many of the places and people in a general sort of way as the novel is set in North Carolina, close to where I was raised in Tennessee. Wolfe is listed with Faulkner, Fitzgerald and Hemingway as the greatest writers of their time. Of that group I’d say Wolfe is the greater.
Ernie: I didn’t find much of a plot. Basically, a boy grows up in a dysfunctional family and seems to learn nothing from it. The characters are not very likable. I found myself almost having sympathy for a few and then they would open their mouths and that was gone. Unfortunately, they all seem very genuine. The failings and problems they have are simple and real and ugly. While almost everyone gets a chance in this story to redeem themselves with human kindness and goodwill, no one seems to succeed or even that eager to try.
Much of the book seems to focus on how this family can’t behave like a family. Early in Eugene’s life his mother buys a boarding house and splits the family with some of the children living with her and some with his father. This arrangement is supposed to be for financial reasons, but the separation may be what keeps the family as “intact” as it is. Regardless, it just reinforces the gulf between siblings and parents for all involved.
Wolfe’s prose flows like poetry. Sometimes it makes sense, often it doesn’t but it’s always a compelling read. Eugene’s awareness of his world grows as he gets older and Wolfe’s writing seems to reflect this. Occasionally, Eugene starts talking outside the scope of his age or experience but for the most part, the narration grows up along with the narrator. I enjoyed Wolfe’s descriptions of his settings far more than any of his dialogue.
As for a happy ending…well, there isn’t much of an ending to it. It seems that this coming of age story leaves the future wide open for Eugene. Much like Winesburg, Ohio, this seems like a story of escape. Maybe Eugene did learn something from all of this after all.
Look Homeward, Angel is a good book but not a good story with great characters who are not good people.
As Look Homeward, Angel is semi-autobiographical, it is appropriate to mention the Thomas Wolfe Memorial in downtown Asheville, North Carolina. It is the boarding house that Wolfe grew up in and restored with original furnishings as it was when he lived there. For more information, visit http://www.nchistoricsites.org/wolfe/wolfe.htm the official website for the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.
Next Week: We reflect on the reading project so far …
Two very astute commentaries. Both pretty well sum up my thoughts on the book. Personally, I do not care much for Wolfe's poetic writing style; I'm a "just the facts ma'am" kind of guy. Furthermore, I normally don't care for "fiction" books where the reader is supposed to know the characters are real people. However, I give Wolfe a pass on this because, as Sandra mentioned, it does give an excellent glimpse into the culture and values in Asheville in the early 1900's.
ReplyDeleteSo what's a guy like me doing with a book like this? Kind of a sad story. I first tried reading this book about 25 years ago at my first wife's urging. She loved the book and was fascinated by Wolfe. Got about 1/3 of the way through, was very annoyed by said writing style, and put it down. My ex-wife was killed in a car wreck in Nov 2010, and her daughter (my step-daughter during our marriage) read from the book, which she loved as well. She read the part at the end where Eugene visits Ben's grave and talks about death. It was Katie's way of saying goodbye to her mother, which I found very touching.
Our daughter Emily also did a similar reading from Watership Down, which is on my future reading list, but I digress.
Anyway, that motivated me to take another shot at it, and this time I read it through. Again, I did enjoy the glimpse of life from back then. I wish he had written more about his experiences in Chapel Hill (aka Pulpit Hill), where I went as did my ex and both daughters. Still & all, I think I appreciated his considerable skill with the English language this time. A non-sports-fan might feel the same way at a sporting event; he might not get what the hoopla is all about, but still appreciate that the athletes are doing stuff that most mortals can't fathom doing.
Anyway, that's my take. Happy trails & happy reading!
Tom Taylor