How does the structure of the novel serve the story? Two examples…
--You could make the argument that the novel begins and ends with a performance. First, The Petrified Forest, at the end Mrs. Givings’ “performance” for the Braces.
--The skilful use of flashback throughout. My favorite? From the last chapter of Part 2 to the first of Part 3.
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I thought the boldest structural decision was to shift the narrative perspective to Shep as April hemorrhages. The great most of the book is taken up from Frank's consciousness, and as I neared the end of the book, I expected to "endure" the same ending that Chuck Lorre spoiled for me too along with him, so when the entire hospital segment was taken up by Mr. Campbell and his bladder, I thought, Interesting, Yates.
ReplyDeleteHe'd been this affable, jejune presence (though not without a rich backstory of his own) the whole time, and his longing for April was so juvenile, and I was just as dismissive as Frank was of him. But by the end, when he's calling out Milly's "performance" of the Wheelers' tragedy for the Braces as fallow and inauthentic, I couldn't see the book ending any other way.
Shep's commitment to rolling with the punches, no matter what the punches are, which is antithetical to Frank and April's need to shake shit up, seemed noble to me by RR's end...
One more thought about structure: how brilliantly seamlessly did Yates weave characters' backstories/memories into otherwise present-tense "moments"? They never felt wedged in. They always added a texture to the character or the scene, or both, in ways most writers couldn't pull off. So bully for Dick.
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ReplyDeleteI think Shep is a really interesting character to discuss. From the very beginning, he's introduced in the context of the play as someone whose abilities were suspect, but was so "enthusiastic and friendly" that "nobody'd had the heart to suggest replacing him." Yates has to mean him as a foil to Frank and he obviously plays a big role throughout the novel as you mention here.
ReplyDeleteBut at the same time he is not without his own faults, manifesting mainly through the familiar lack of satisfaction with life and his place. In part two, chapter two, he somehow sympathetically is able to convey a "revulsion for his children" and, in one of the more interesting moments in the book, speaks of his wife after catching a "whiff of something rancid" when he embraced her:
"Shep Campbell wondered what the hell it was that made her smell that way sometimes. It wasn't that she didn't take enough baths--he knew damn well she'd had one last night--and it didn't have anything to do with the time of the month; he had checked that out long ago"
It's a telling moment for Shep's character and, I suppose, about the role of women in the book. What does Milly ever do but bring on the unfair disdain of others and serve as a place for the Wheeler's to dump off the kids. When Frank was dancing with her at the Log Cabin, she's described from Frank's perspective as a "damp untidy, package in his arms and she talked inanely." I think just a character study of Milly Campbell could be an interesting thing to explore as well. After the novel treats her, you can't really blame her for culling the attention the storytelling brings upon her at the end.
Whatever. I'm definitely getting off-focus here from structure. Like I said, there is just a lot to discuss :)
See, I found Shep to be the only character who could authentically analyze and accept his experiences and his choices. I liked him despite his rather pathetic crush on April. He took ownership of his feelings about his kids and wife--his occasional revulsion for the kids, Milly's sometime stinkiness--but somehow these disappointments didn't define his life. He could see positives and find satisfaction as well. I think that through Shep, Yates was saying that married life with kids in suburbia doesn't have to be defined by dissatisfaction and longing for an elusive "something else."
ReplyDeleteAnd speaking of symbolism, the name "Shep" kind of makes me think of a sheepdog...big, shaggy, maybe not too smart but somehow lovable ...with a strong sense of duty and loyalty.
Whoops, that last one there was me. Didn't realize Dan was still signed in to the blog.
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