The Apes gathered at Mulligan's, as has become our custom. The setting works well, and there were no blankety blank dog lovers to interfere.
The overall concensus on Gabriel was, "Liked the book, good story, but....". Not being a but man, I don't think I followed all the commentary, but I'll try to recreate the discussion:
The opinion amongst the more literary Apes was that Durham wrote a nice story, particularly for his first book, but that he bit off a bit more than he could chew. He tried to address too broad a variety of subjects, and as a result, left some of the shrewdness unsatisfied. There were a number of comparisons to McCarthy along the lines of "McCarthy light", didn't hold together as well as a McCarthy story, etc. There was some evidence that the author had not really done his homework - "down both barrels of the rifle" - rifles only have one barrel. Do your homework!
Grousing aside, the book was quite enjoyable. Gabriel was an admirable character, God knows he had plenty of opportunity to go south. The violent scenes left most all of us squirming, some of us skipping through the more disturbing rape scenes. For myself, a little bit of this goes a very long way. A couple of scenes- looking down on the New Mexico farm, going down into the canyon before the rain storm- left most all of us thinking "this is not going to turn out well".
Glen commented about how obvious is was that Caleb was a combination of Cain and Abel. Must admit I didn't get that one at all, but it's an interesting thought. He was one bad dude, but he did after all kill Marshall in the end. Marshall's name was an interesting choice for that character.
Next up will be TC Boyle's When the Killing's Done - a bit of a clash of the ecologists story. Until then I remain...
3 comments:
I found Gabriel to be a mixed bag. I think Durham was unsure what to write. I had to continue reminding myself that this was a first novel. Early on he described the move to Kansas as "...traveled like fleas on a mammoth's back." and I thought, "Oh, no. This is going to be awful." I was right on some respects. One character respons "...I don't know what planet you're from." I can't see this phrase used in the Civil War Era. I liked "They're hotter than...them habanero chiles. Burn your pecker if you're not in and out quick." "People do some unholy crazy mischief, that's the truth of it." I did wonder what caused Marshall, ironically named?, to keep Gabriel and James around. Would such desperados have done that? I did like the religious undertones. Shades of McCarthy, but sepia shades at best. Might read something else by Durham if he can find his voice. Did like the length of the book.
Doc
Take #2 . . .blogspot somehow ate my first attempt . . .
Overall, I enjoyed this first novel. Kind of a different take on the West that I hadn't though much about: freed slave or second generation black homesteaders. I felt earlier Apes pick The Known World was a nice companion piece, sort of explaining what the homesteaders left behind on their move west.
The characters and the story carried it for me more than the writing and semi-successful attempts to elevate the novel to an allegory. Biblical names, Old Testament violence, maybe a Cain and Abel retelling at times smacked of Durham trying too hard to enter the world of "literature."
After creating a great heart-pounding climactic Western shootout scene with all principals already on stage or racing to get there and even the gold ingot on hand in the last ten pages, the epilogue frustratingly weakened all that he'd built in that climax. It was the frustrating to now be told "OK, here's what I was trying to do!" Please, Mr Durham, confidently let your story-telling, character development, and plotting carry the novel and do not add an explanatory epilogue.
Overall, however, I would give another Durham novel a read. His simmering potential outweighs my frustrations and I always felt he was right on the verge of pulling off a great novel. He did a nice job at keeping the novel short by showing the difficulty of growing up, the racism, the pure evil some possess rather than telling and telling, and for the most part kept the novel tightly controlled. Good pick, Glenn, and I'm glad I read it.
Read on, Apes!
Very good points you wrote here..Great stuff...I think you've made some truly interesting points.Keep up the good work.
ported barrels
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