October Light

Fresh back from the Navy and the Vietnam war, I got into Gardner. Somewhere in the process I regained my sanity. Thirty years later, much better educated, I still laugh at the subtlety of Gardner's though. I like the NY Times review of Grendel best: "He thinks, danm it". Grendel remains the pinnacle, October Light his funniest, but my favorite remains Freddy's Book. Why have his books been forgotten.

This is a complex, somewhat clumsy, thick, odd, and eventually wonderful novel. James Page is a crusty old Vermonter who blasts his TV with a shotgun and locks his 80-year old sister, Sally, in her bedroom. While imprisoned there, she finds and reads a cheap paperback thriller about marijuana smugglers in Mexico (actually written by Gardner and his first wife, Joan). The two stories are then woven together with considerable leaps of time and missing pages in the thriller. At times, Gardner wanders around in philosophy la-la land, while at other times he can write the most surreal and beautiful poetic prose about nature, and at still other times he can portray the emotional torture endured by James and eventual redemption of his humane spirit. The introduction, by Tom Bissell, a Gardner admirer, is excellent. We will never know why Gardner had to die at age 49, or whether he willed it; but this novel stands as one of his very best. My own favorite, however, is Nickel Mountain, a much earlier work.

How did the gurus at Modern Library miss October Light in their ranking of the 100 greatest English language books of the 20th Century? The comparison of Russo to Gardner is apt, but Empire Falls -- Pulitzer worthy, yes -- remains October Light Lite.

Here, in one of Gardner's finest novels, domestic warfare between two spirited, overly-opinionated senior citizens--brother and sister--brings chaos to their community of friends and family. Gardner's story says much about that vital tension at the heart of American life--the conflict between tradition and progressivism--and about the difficult business of pushing beyond this conflict to find a place where one can stand, secure and untroubled, beneath the haunted, holy light that comes with an autumn in the Land of the Free.

I no longer give 5 stars to everything I like, but this is a book I return to again and again. It is a great 5 star book by a great 5 star author and a brilliant teacher (see The Art of Fiction). I hope it will be reissued so that more people can discover a gem of twentieth century writing. Do whatever you can to find a copy. It's a true hoot. Hopefully your local library will still have October Light in the collection.John Gardner has created two great characters in 72 year old James Page and his older sister Sally Abbot. James, born on the fourth of July, is fiercely independent. His life's work has been caring for "dumb animals: horses, dairy cows, bees, pigs, chickens, and, indirectly, men. " James is truly shocked by Sally's disrespect for his opinions on the state of things in general. "Though he was never a great talker--certainly not in comparison to her, she could lecture your arm off--he knew a signifcant fact or two, knew by thunder, a truth or two--a truth or two that was still worth getting out of bed for." Sally Page, a widow, has moved in with her brother James, because once the well to do wife of a dentist, she is now destitute. Sally does not adapt well to James' idea of a good life (one without television, nuclear energy, opinionated females, or home improvements.) "She'd preached him a sermon off television about the Equal Rights Amendment. He'd been amazed by all she said--shocked and flabbergasted, though he knew from magazines that there were people who believed such foolishness." They shake each other up, "She'd seemed as astonished by it all as he was, so astonished to discover what he thought that he almost came to doubt it," and ultimately survive themselves and each other.The pleasure of laughing out loud one minute and then crying quietly in recognition almost in the next moment are among the literary gifts that Gardner bestows. Within the main story of the crises in James and Sally's relationship, precipitated by the murder of Sally's television set, is another lurid, slyly compelling trash novel, a "blockbuser," which Sally reads while locked up in her room subsisting on a diet of apples. Sally's relationship with the book she is reading are some of the most satisfying moments in October Light. "She began to fall in with the book's snappy rhythms, becoming herself more wry, more wearily disgusted with the world..." As the spat between James and Sally becomes more grave and less of a rollick, Sally's trash novel becomes an hilarious rollercoaster ride. Sally hangs on for dear life. We learn through her musings a little more about the past and why the two siblings have only each other to rely on now. Much occurs to resolve the spat between James and Sally. And it's all perfectly satisfying, like true October light. If this book were a painting, I would imagine a Wyeth interior with a Bosch on the wall. Fasten your seatbelts and prepare to be entertained.