Q's Views

One aspect to this literary journey that is most pleasing is the discovery of new authors that I never read before and quite honestly had never considered reading before. In the introduction to the Barnes and Noble edition of The Magnificant Ambersons, I learned that William Dean Howells was considered the King of realism and Frank Norris was instrumental in the naturalist movement. I want to address Norris in this entry.

I just finished McTeague by Frank Norris and prior to it I read The Ocotpus. McTeague is a dim-witted dentist living in San Francisco. Think about that because I certainly did. How does a brutish, dim-witted man become a dentist. Norris portrayal of this simple man and the story of his courtship and marriage is interesting in the way it unfolds. The course of events that leads to McTeague's becoming a murderer and hunted man is, well, natural. (BTW, that's no more a spoiler than telling you Crime and Punishment or An American Tragedy is about a murder.)

Norris tells the story such that you never really feel compassion for McTeague, but you understand what drives him to take the actions that he does. The story is well told and well written.

The Octopus is an even better book. It's a disturbing story about wheat farmers and their struggle and eventual battle with the railroad. But the story is well plotted and characters are developed in such a way that you can't help yourself from taking sides. Which is the point. Norris tells the story wonderfully. There's a scene in the book where one of the farmers, who is desperately in love with a milk maid that works in the dairy on his farm, goes up on a hill to sort out how his feelings. He spends the night on the hilltop and at dawn, not only has he discovered the true nature of his love, but the wheat has sprung from the ground. The description literally took my breath away and, folks, literature doesn't do that to me very often.

Frank Norris died of peritonitis he contracted from a burst appendix. He was 32. I wonder if he would be more prominent among the giants of American Literature. For me, he is one of the shining gems along the way on this literary journey.