My earlier post on "The Kite Runner" got me thinking about the difficulty of writing about what I call "the interesting failure." It's when a book is very good, but still has profound flaws.
Maureen Corrigan is a book reviewer I like a lot; usually I listen to her book reviews on Fresh Air, the radio show from National Public Radio.
She recently reviewed the new novel Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (author of "The Remains of the Day," which became a touching film starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson). Her mixed review definitely fell into that category, and it was very interesting to hear how she handled it in a review. Listen to her review here.
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3 comments:
Hi spoonreader,
I have just finished a dissertation chapter on an interesting failure, William Dean Howells's The World of Chance. (Both author and novel are interesting, but only the novel is in any sense of the word a "failure." If you have never read any Howells, don't start with this one! It's kind of a mess, with a comic-ironic story about a novelist that mixes strangely with another tremendously dark plot about a crazy ex-Shaker. I enjoyed writing on it, though, in part because few other critics have. It's just hard to get all the themes of an "interesting failure" down on paper. If anyone reading this post hasn't read Howells and would like to, start with A Hazard of New Fortunes. He's kind of like a cross between Edith Wharton and Jane Austen . . .funnier than Edith, not so funny as Jane, but very, very good at capturing America. He's a lot less hoity-toity than Wharton or Henry James.
Keep up the fun blog!
howellsreader
Thanks for the comment, howellsreader! I had heard that the The Rise of Silas Lapham was also good Howells to start with. If you had to pick, would you favor A Hazard of New Fortunes over Silas?
I really do want to read some Howells -- because I know you like him, and because I too enjoy dwelling on the smiling aspects of life!! : )
I was thinking about composing a Summer Reading List 2005 for myself, maybe I will do that and include some Howells.
I had been reconsidering the Hazard of New Fortunes suggestion even before I read your response. :-) Hazard is very good, but it is very long and you may feel that it bogs down in places. Silas Lapham is probably the better choice. It's a good way to figure out whether you like Howells. The only thing is, it's a lot more "secular" in its morality than many of his other works, and I think you will really enjoy the late Victorian spiritual crisis through his eyes. You might check out Annie Kilburn, The Son of Royal Langbrith, or The Minister's Charge to get a better picture of that aspect of American society. The nice thing about Howells is that he doesn't come to neat conclusions, and he's also not cynically existentialist like a lot of his contemporaries who have since been more celebrated by the academic establishment. He is an engaged, skeptical optimist, kind of like someone else I know. :-)
howellsreader
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