I’m feel so seriously about it, I’m reduced to “I”
Posted by Lizzie on 12/16/04
I can’t explain my current obsession with John P. Marquand and Richard Yates. Perhaps it’s the patina of war (I and II), now apropos. Perhaps it’s these authors’ steady examination of fate, the slow swing of the pendulum, in Yates’ case, resting on failure, and in Marquand’s, in a strange redemption (if you look left, you’ll see I already said that, but it’s late). In any case, if you want a peep-hole into WASP strivings and proof that Jonathan Franzen is indeed a very, very bad writer, try these two.
Filed under: Lit-ish |
Mercy buckets. I needed a good read for the holiday and NOTHING was calling out to me until I read your review on the left– just ordered Point of No Return . . thanks.
Comment by bluepoppy — 12/16/2004 @ 9:47 am
Don’t miss BF’s Daughter and Revolutionary Road either!!!!
Comment by Old Hag — 12/16/2004 @ 11:26 am
Add “Sincerely, Willis Wayde” and if you want the ultimate Marquand war novel, check out “So Little Time.” Marquand’s the shit, yo.
Comment by Ed — 12/16/2004 @ 11:39 am
Richard Ford hearts Yates, too. From the 12/12 Telegraph (via Bookslut):
“The lecture circuit in America is plainly more lucrative than it is here: Ford admits he can earn “$10,000 a pop” for it. He’s also been editing a follow-up volume to his Granta Book of the American Short Story (1992), for which I owe him a particular debt of gratitude: it was the book that first alerted me to the work of another Richard, Yates. (Ford also wrote a heartfelt introduction to the reissue of Yates’s incomparable novel, Revolutionary Road.)”
$10,000??? Fuck me with Binky Urban’s fountain pen…
Comment by Jimmy Beck — 12/16/2004 @ 12:02 pm
Just picked up the Yates collection remaindered. Will probably take it for the long flight to NYC next week …
Comment by TEV — 12/16/2004 @ 2:39 pm
I’m a big fan of ‘The Late George Appley’. It’s the only Marquand I’ve read so far, but ‘Wickford Point’ is also on my shelf. Anyone read that one?
Comment by bookdwarf — 12/16/2004 @ 3:44 pm
I like George Apley, but I liked “So Little Time” better; more heart, somehow. I haven’t gotten to Wickford Point yet; I’m about to see if the Mr. Moto novels are demented. I have an omnibus edition, I think from BOMC circa 1940 or something.
Comment by Old Hag — 12/16/2004 @ 3:54 pm
Did you pick up a copy of Blake Bailey’s Yates biography yet? Very good stuff.
Enjoy,
Comment by Dan Wickett — 12/17/2004 @ 6:21 am
Lizzie: The Mr. Moto books are strangely ancient, written in a rush and filled with racist references to “my dependable rickshaw boy” and the like. And yet I read them all. Probably because they were so demented.
Comment by Ed — 12/17/2004 @ 10:07 pm
What’s racist about a dependable rickshaw boy? In Baltimore cabs are expensive, and they are ROYALTY.
Comment by Old Hag — 12/18/2004 @ 11:31 pm
Yates rocks but do not read if you are feeling remotely mopey.
Just saying.
Comment by maccers — 12/20/2004 @ 3:39 pm
yes, Revolutionary Road gave me a bad Saturday, actually. I had to read some Eugenides to perk up.
Comment by Old Hag — 12/20/2004 @ 3:54 pm
Just picked up a 1950s Bantam .50 cent version of “Point Of New Return” and…
I can’t put it down. I find myself comparing it to “The Corrections”, which I just finished and liked, and I find Franzen wanting.
PS – the promotional copy describing “PONR” on the back of my version is amazing.
Comment by Events In Motion — 1/27/2005 @ 12:41 pm
Post it herein!!!!
Comment by Old Hag — 1/27/2005 @ 5:43 pm