more on A Rage To Live by John O'Hara

this one has spoilers.


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do I need to say, just because I think a book is well-written and enjoyable, it does not immediately follow that I am in league with the characters and their questionable behavior? I hope people already know that. I applaud a writer who can make a work of fiction seem, well, not like fiction but, instead, real. and if the work seems real, then it's usually because the characters seem like real people. and real people make mistakes and behave badly, some moreso than others.

it bothered me that Sidney died when he did. it honestly didn't affect Grace much, as she had lost him anyway. Sidney did not deserve to die; but perhaps it was more merciful to die than to have his means of leaving-with-cover (army/navy) withdrawn from him, or for him to go on living in his incredibly lonely, alienated way, completely disillusioned now with the one thing in his life that had made him happy. or maybe that's just an excuse; I mean, getting over it and moving on (no matter what "it" is) is always hard, but it is doable and there are great rewards for success.

Grace, no I do not think that Grace was just an independent soul blah blah blah. she knew the rules of the game, esp back then, and she broke them, and went on breaking them. she knew the price and she kept on. I know she says she couldn't help it, but just because something is hard isn't an excuse to stop resisting. in fact, that's when you need to resist the most. honestly I think Grace was spoiled more than independent; she never seemed to think much for herself at all, and even less did she think about other people. she never learned how to restrain her id, and never tried. you can't be independent if you're not even in control of yourself. that's just being a different kind of slave. I have no real respect for Grace; if she hadn't money, then she and more importantly her children could easily have ended up in destitute circumstances.

not to say that the men in the novel were angels, either. I think there is something to the idea that Roger Bannon was homosexual, and trying to compensate. he certainly was full of hate for women (I'm not saying that gay men are all misogynists) which seemed to stem from an unconscious hate of cultural expectations regarding gender roles, or hate for himself for failing to naturally want what his culture expected him to want.

Hollister... ot, that name had me thinking of The Happy Hollisters all the way through the book... I'm not sure what was his problem. he seemed full of hate as well. why? he had the wife and kids that he always set out to have, and the job that he'd always wanted too. he had the respect and the attention of the community and into the wider world. maybe he did just get a swelled head, thinking that he was not just better than everyone else but that they were beneath him, because he surely set out to have it all, including wife and mistress. but at the same time, he knew that he was destroying his relationship with his wife, kids, and that whole side of the family, and that he was ruining the future of a girl he sometimes claimed to love--- he seemed determined to destroy them, and in so doing, destroy his reputation, his means of livelihood, and himself, utterly. it seems to simple to say that power corrupts. maybe power did corrupt, and he hated himself for that, and turned against himself in the end. although we never know what happened to them in the long run, no matter how that turned out, the damage was done, irrepairably.

all that blarney about "principles"---coming from Jack Hollister! a man of no principles at all! and Amy's father trying to believe it, because he thinks he's supposed to? does it make you a better person when you knowingly let people use you? do you think the kids ought to grow up knowing that that's okay, that's the way to go? bah. oh I know, I know, believe me I know. most male-dominated cultures have (in the past at least) taken that line. the woman is not the authority and no matter what the man does, she should forgive him and try to make him a better person through her own example (or butt the hell out, either way). the man-man connection here in this context (trying to get Amy's father on his side just because they're both men)(and damn it, did it not work?) always reminds me of something Charlotte Perkins Gilman might say---why should the males compete against the males when it's so much easier for the males to compete with and dominate over the females instead?

moving on.

Sidney now, what a sad one. did he actually believe in this courtly love? seeing her at first sight and wanting nothing else but to worship her and give her everything she wanted? did he actually think that? that's very sad to me. that is the source of his loneliness more even than his foreigness to Fort Penn. did he choose that for himself, this exclusion from the world, knowingly? he wanted a fantasy life, and in order to have that, the real world must always be far away.

Charlie Jay and Brock, my goodness. what is there to say? who could be worse except maybe Miles, Roger's friend. how can you be friends with someone who rapes your sister or beats the mahen hell out of an unarmed woman, for no reason? don't you have to believe in the kind of person your friend is, in order to actually be real friends? I'm not saying people in general shouldn't have the chance to be forgiven and to have a second chance, in general... but if those crimes stem from an innate part of the personality or a still-cultivated mindset, etc, if, in short, the wellspring of the trouble is still well and sprung (if you'll forgive me), then you know damn well what kind of "friend" you have there, don't you? how can you be friends unless you are just as bad and, furthermore, don't care? what, nobody wants to be a better person anymore? everyone is so disillusioned and full of apathy and dislike for themselves and their fellows that this is acceptable?

the other women characters confound me. oh, I understand Amy Hollister, all right (maybe not the part about going back, but that's a difference in our times; I'll give her that). but the others... Connie, I can see how she ended up in a relationship with another woman. I wondered why the hell she always hung around Grace like that; who would? she didn't really seem to be wanting favor or priviledge; it was probably just a crush (or maybe a bit more, since it lasted so long). but in short the other women sound like the apathetic bunch I just mentioned. we really do talk ourselves into believing whatever we want, don't we? ("you keep on building the lies
that you make up for all that you lack")

well, 700 pages. I'm sure there's more to say. but for nowI should probably wrap this up. I know when I start to quote lyrics--- that's my cue lol