Tuesday, April 04, 2006

The West

I can't get into the modern literary tales of the West. I use that labored phrasing to avoid saying "Western," as I want to separate 20th century stories of people and families coping with the challenges of living in great isolation from adventure stories of the 19th century. Wallace Stegner is a popular modern Western writer. I read Big Rock Candy Mountain and thought it decent. I started Angle of Repose but couldn't get into it. Crossing to Safety is sitting around the house, read by my spouse but not by me. The man won prizes galore and gets top marks from everyone, but it always felt a little bit like a longer Steinbeck to me.

I had an even harder time with Ivan Doig. I read English Creek and just did not get it. I love Montana, it's gorgeous, but apparently I don't want to read about it. I don't understand why these books don't click for me. It could be, despite living in the West, that I am city person at heart. It could also be that I am a southerner and as the t-shirts used to say "you wouldn't understand."

One exception to my western aversion is Cormac McCarthy, but he is so stylistically singular that he would be an exception. I will say that I found his stripped down No Country for Old Men to be less appealing than Blood Meridian.

4 comments:

Tripp said...

OK, maybe Angle of Repose will get another shot. It can go with Catcher in the Rye, another one that I somehow missed.

Totally agree on Updike. He is all about examining the aging American male. And being horny.

Brack said...

I second Steve's comments re: Stegner. The depth of his characters and the richness of their relationships are up there w/ those of Robertson Davies.

b

P.S. Speaking of Robertson Davies, get ready for a Little Christmas this dieses Wochenende, T.

Tripp said...

With Davies, eh? Well maybe I should give it another look. I think he is one of the absolute tops, of all time, of all nations. At least the English speaking ones.

Your allusion eludes me, but it fills me with trepidation.

Tripp said...

Shoot man, now I have to go flipping through the Cornish trilogy.