Books read in 2024: No. 3 -- October Light

by John Gardner

Started: Jan. 6

Finished: Jan. 26

Notes: Gardner is an author I've long admired, both his fiction and non-fiction, but I feel I should read more of his works. His most famous novel is likely Grendel, but I've also much appreciated his non-fiction book On Moral Fiction. Here's to hoping I'll find this novel interesting as well.

Mini review: This was what some might consider a "serious" novel, even a ponderous novel, and it's not the fastest or easiest of reads, but I'm definitely glad to have read it, though I doubt I'll ever do so again. The plot will sound rather mundane. It's the 1970s in rural Vermont and an old farmer lives with his even older sister in their family home. One night they get into an argument, he shoots the television, and chases her upstairs where he locks her in her room. The next day when he has come around and decides to let her out, she refuses, the sister going on something of a strike, refusing to leave her room or clean house or cook for her brother. Throughout the novel she stays in her room, surviving by using a bed pan and a crate of apples available to her. Soon enough other members of the family show up and try to affect things, and eventually even pastors and friends try to end this stalemate between brother and sister. All the while, the elderly woman in her room reads a "trashy" novel that she discovered, a book of drug smugglers and a somewhat suicidal protagonists. Interesting enough, no small amount of this "trashy" novel is given to the reader, so it's sort of like two novels in one. Again, all this sounds rather mundane, but this is a novel with depths, touching upon family relations, politics, religion, philosophy, and ultimately, grief and how we cope or don't cope with it. There are few surprises here, though there are a few, and no small amount of space is spent on memories of the past, of the older people's younger days and those they have loved and lost. I feel like I'm barely touching what this novel is about, but this is supposed to be a mini review and not a full-out one. Can I recommend this novel? Not for everyone. But if you're the type who likes to delve into a literary piece from time to time, this one should be right up your alley.