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Desperate CharactersPaula FoxBrooklyn is the new chic place to live in New York. Large apartments in ancient brownstones on tree-lined streets, neighborhood restaurants with unpretentious menus, and, most of all, a community of smart young people who both consume and create --- Brooklyn is like Greenwich Village forty years ago. And, compared to Manhattan, it's cheap. Paula Fox got there --- in fiction, anyway --- in 1970. Sophie and Otto Bentwood may be pioneers, but they don't live that way. On their table: “slices of French bread, an earthenware casserole filled with sauteed chicken livers, peeled and sliced tomatoes.” The bookcases are filled with “the complete works of Goethe and two shelves of French poets.” The floors are cedar. Over dinner, Sophie notices that a stray cat has returned. She gives it some milk. And is rewarded for her kindness with a nasty bite on the hand. Blood gushes. Her hand swells. The pain is intense. And yet Sophie makes no move to go to a hospital and get a rabies shot. In fact, she doesn't get to the hospital until page 109 of this 156-page novel. Why not? Because the bite is a kind of metaphor for America in the throes of the Vietnam War, though the war is never directly named. And the bite is a metaphor for this marriage, which is more troubled than it appears. Not much happens. A legal partnership dissolves. An affair is reviewed and resolved. A dinner party ends with a rock through a window. A phone call is like a slap in the face. Paula Fox writes with precision and control; when “Desperate Characters” was first published, critics lined up to praise it. And they weren't wrong --- in three days, we learn all we need to know about a handful of characters. And we experience something rare: a concise piece of writing that is, for once, equal to the hype. --- by Jesse Kornbluth, for HeadButler.com To buy “Desperate Characters” from Amazon.com, click here. Copyright 2008 by Head Butler Inc. |
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