Take Five

Before its recent resurrection by Dalkey Archive, D Keith Mano's Take Five had enjoyed only an abbreviated and unheralded shelf life before fading away, largely unnoticed. It had been deemed too vulgar and blasphemous to appeal to conservative readers. At the same time, it was felt that Mano's overall theme of Christian redemption would put off the majority of more liberal-minded readers. Kudos to the folks at Dalkey for recognizing this novel's inherent value and taking the risk to provide us a second chance at it. The Christian redemption idea is certainly a valid interpretation of Take Five, actually one that is pretty compelling. I would even concede that it may likely have dominated the author's intentions in the process of writing this book. But an identifying mark of good literature (and Take Five is surely that) lies in its openness to multiple and conflicting readings. I, personally, found nothing in the text that served to commit me to any exclusively Christian understanding of the story. Mr. Mano, wisely, has too much respect for his readers to try to do their thinking for them.Simon Lynxx is the most high-energy, life-affirming cyclone of a character that I have come across since William Gaddis' JR. He constantly sweeps up both the reader and his supporting cast in his wake as he tilts at the windmills of his imagined betrayals and storms the walls denying him the just rewards of his self-proclaimed genius. In the manic process, he voraciously consumes everything and everyone in his path, and is then puzzled in the aftermath when his subjects' loyalty falls short of his expectations. Simon doesn't always have a clear fix on just exactly what it is that he wants, but finds himself, nevertheless, relentlessly driven by his hyper-awareness that he does want something and that it always seems to be just beyond his reach. His campaign in pursuit of these poorly articulated ends is marked by a series of coitus interrupti, variously literal and metaphorical, adding to his general frustration. His speech is vulgar, profane, and literally laced with a crude brand of bigotry. Because his invective is scattershot and aimed at no particular individual or group of individuals, it becomes apparent after a while that Simon is not a seething volcano of hatred and intolerance, but rather uses his offensiveness as a shield to keep intruders at bay. And to a man rendered so vulnerable by self-loathing, everyone is an intruder. Take Five is first and foremost the well-crafted tale of the humbling transformation and self-discovery of Simon Lynxx, but even more intriguing to me is the author's clever exploration of the nature/nurture controversy as it applies to the formation of Simon's character and the facade behind which he has chosen to hide. Mano offers no conclusive answers here, of course, but he does manage to present the question in a thought-provoking light.As for the language and insensitive bigotry central

I was Barnes & Noble-surfing for summer readingwhen I came across this fat volume. I knew D. Keith Mano's name, but not much else. Having read "Take Five" (it hurts me, a former English major, to put the title of a novel in quotes, but this is the Web) I can only guess at the hurt it must have caused its author to have had it be largely ignored in 1982. In fact I, who am undaunted by length or "difficulty," had never heard of it. I picture myself in 1982: "Gravity's Rainbow" went down without a hiccup at around that time.So: this novel belongs with "GR," "Ulysses" and "The Recognitions" as great modern American encyclopedic novels.. Despite reviews to the contrary, it is actually quite accessible, more so than the novels to which I have just referred. Its hero is pleasantly reminiscent of Payne in Thomas McGuane's "The Bushwhacked Piano," but on steroids. It is very funny, literate, allusive, and, finally, moving. In 1999 its ability to shock is probably confined only to those who have innocently wandered quite wide of the innocuous literature aisle.

After reading this book, I handed it to my very well read brother who said "that is the sadest book I have ever read." It is, and it is not. It is a creative tour-de, like a more restrained and elemental Barthelme. It reminds me (as does the death and life of harry goth) of Confederacy of Dunces...I think Mano is just a brilliant writer.