Tony and Susan by Austin Wright
My rating: 3/5 cats
this is the new big hoopla book—previously published in the early nineties, then out of print, then recently republished in england to much acclaim, now revived and reintroduced to america. an exhausting journey for one little book.
fortunately, it is interesting enough to withstand such rough treatment. there is a lot i liked about this book, even though had it been written these days, it would have needed a little updating. a well-placed cellphone would have changed the trajectory of the novel altogether. and i am not usually one to long for technology. but rrrrrr—cellphone, tony!!
this is one of those “check out my unconventional structure, yo” novels. its shape is the novel-within-the novel: susan has received the unpublished manuscript of her former husband, which relationship she ruined by cheating on him with her current husband. she reads portions of the novel and then steps back, ruminating on what she is reading, and rehashing all her old mistakes and trying to discern a hidden meaning in the novel; a message directed at her. it considers the impact of fiction upon the reader, the writer’s place within his own narrative, the problematic situation of reading a novel by someone intimately known to the reader, and the process a reader goes through in adapting the experiences in the novel to their own lives in order to make sense of a character’s motivations. so, it has a lot going on, and gives me the same little bookish shivers as some of my favorite books: Mr. Peanut, The Seducer, Magnetic Field(s), The Sea Came in at Midnight; the same snap of realization, and even though there are parts that i think are less well-written than those books, i still have to applaud the intention and the way it all unfolds. it is definitely a fun read.
fun, ha. yeah, the subject matter is not fun, though, it is a good example of discomfort writing. it is mostly about the consequences of hesitation and indecision, the glorious
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
and I have seen the eternal footman hold my coat, and snicker,
and in short, I was afraid.
situation. the looking at all the possible outcomes and realizing that in the thinking, the opportunity has been lost.
the manuscript susan is reading is about tony, a man whose life is ruined because he is a man slow to act; a thinker who is at the shallow end of the masculinity pool. a man who does not know what to do with violence when he is confronted with it, but will maybe have to eventually tap into that side of himself.
something like this, maybe:
and susan, reading the tony character’s story, begins to question what her own life has meant and where her decisions have led her and wonders where—in the edward she knew—this novel has germinated.
it’s good stuff. you will probably hate every single character, and want to slap them all around a little bit, but you might as well read it—there is hoopla about it, after all…
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