Word: reader
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Insider or Out. Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain, by now a celebrated item in the canon of that highly praised writer, stuns the reader's mind with the intensity of its autobiographical anguish, evokes all the prophetic frenzies of the author's Harlem childhood and violently scorns-at the same time that it demands respect for-his abandoned pulpit. Baldwin is the insider looking out. Many people, and this includes all who read for enjoyment, will prefer Goyen-the outsider looking in. When he looks in at the theological thimbleriggers of the clapboard cathedrals...
...similar melting away occurs in the author's new novel, but what dwindles in this case is the reader's sanity. At first, all seems expert and ordinary. A novelist hears of the death of the eccentric owner of an Austrian castle whom he knew 30 years ago, and decides to make a sentimental journey to the funeral. The reader settles back comfortably, expecting to be soothed by a savagely ironic dissection of American life, or of Austrian eccentrics. But irony is not particularly evident here...
...point (never mind why) a character is riding a mare through a snowstorm. He feels his saddle slipping and rides "like an Indian ducking rifle fire. Was he on her or beneath her? Was it the mane or the tail in his face?" There you have the book. The reader enjoys the ride, then feels himself slipping. A mutinous suspicion arises-does the author really know mane from tail...
...particular, Mr. Hertzberg knowingly misleads the reader by gauging the strength of the right-wing in terms of Mr. Schoeman's vote for President (nine out of 204). Mr. Schoeman was in no way connected with the conservative forces at the Congress, and I know of no conservatives who voted...
...case, is cossetted, cozened and finally totally defeated by a sumptuous, fluff-headed salesgirl who is canny enough to keep the only two ideas she ever had-marriage and bed-in their proper sequence. Given today's liberal standards and the girl's palpably provocative evasions, a reader is likely to find himself lightheartedly rooting for the reporter. The doings and undoings, anyway, all appear to be good clean smoking-room fun. Then, it suddenly becomes apparent that in the hero's blithe pursuit of what appears to be fair game lurks the seed of the same...