Reviewer:
Stallcup57
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August 17, 2015
Subject:
Great WW II and postwar novel
I honestly think this is one of the great underappreciated American post war novels by a writer who at his best, challenges the best American literature has to offer. It is Quincy's coming of age novel that moves through his childhood, adolescence, WW and post war experience. It is not a political novel (as say Mailer's Naked and the Dead), nor is it social review or commentary (as say Dos Passos), nor about class, status and social aspirations ( per Fitzgerald), nor is Bourjailly himself omnipresent (as Heningway) so that the writing is not thinly disguised auto biography or authorial fantasy. It is however a very personal novel. We really believe in Quincey, who tells most of the novel from the perspective of an older, wiser point of view,even conducting an imaginary conversation between Q the narrator and Q the charactor.
Bourjaily writes beautifully and is brilliant in conveying Q's growing up especially his growing sexual awareness. from anxious and awkward, to besmitten and betrayed, to somewhat callow impressed by the imposition of his own power. The marvellous thing is that Q is convincing at every stage and Bourjaily takes us through a range of emotional responses, all feeling genuine and never manipulated.
For me this is close to the great american novel, beautifully written and honestly evocative of a young man's coming of age but also of America before and after the war. There are no misteps here, tho I was never entirely satisfied with the ending, but that is more than compensated by the brilliant prologue and the wonderful novel that follows. Read it.