In a message dated 1/11/01 10:40:02 PM,
buff@pobox.com writes:
<<Hoke has three books in his room: HEIDI
(left over from his divorce), A STONE FOR DANNY FISHER by
Harold Robbins, and a Webster's dictionary. When he buys and
reads "an occasional paperback novel," he leaves it in the
lobby of his hotel for the others. What's with the Harold
Robbins novel? Does anyone know what it's about?
>>
A Stone for Danny Fisher is classic growing-up book, roughly
a working class version of Catcher in the Rye: Jewish kid
from Brooklyn, before WWII, wants to be a fighter, his
parents object, he does so anyhow, and gets mixed up with
gamblers, racketeers.
<< parenting skills are pretty low (witness his birds
and bees talk with his daughters, and taking out Aileen's
braces was horrible), >>
The rooftop discussion about Sue Ellen and Aileen's choice --
you can get married or you can wash dogs-- is
hilarious.
Seems to me you can tell which authors make a living
teaching freshman comp by the appearance of either/or
thinking. Writers who have graded 700+ essays a semester full
of lines like "either we kill the enemy or seek personal
salvation in the Afterlife" are likely to sneak in a line or
two reducing sexual politics to marriage or washing dogs.
Seems that many HB protaganists who have a family life at all
have a cobbled-together family like Hoke's. Vachss may be an
extreme example. Or James Lee Burke's David Robicheaux if you
count his demons, phantoms and recurring nightmares as part
of his family. And if you don't count the demons, what's a
family for? Betsy
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 12 Jan 2001 EST