I am well into the "Miriam" section. I can't help thinking of Boyle's The Inner Circle as I read this. Both The Inner Circle (about Alfred Kinsey) and this novel look closely at groundbreaking "geniuses" who both have private falls (to varying extents). Both novels are narrated by much younger men who are attracted to their respective geniuses, although in the previous novel, the narration does not take place in retrospect. Both of the "central men"--the geniuses--espouse their own version of freedom and subvert convention. TC Boyle is a baby boom-era novelist whose Drop City is about a group of hippies trying to establish a communal living situation in unfriendly environs. In some sense, The Inner Circle is about this, too.
Where is everyone else in the book?
(Just got back from Chicago and read the Olgivanna section there, much of it set in Chicago. Fun!)
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Yes, yes, I'm here! Sorry...I was on vacation and (although I had internet access) too busy slathering sunscreen on little ones to post.
ReplyDeleteI'm still in Miriam-land myself (or am I past that?). I'm wondering if Catherine (wife #1) is going to come into somewhere.
What do you think of Miriam? It's hard to like Wright, don't you think? One feels lots of things about the women: annoyance, sympathy, understanding, curiosity, but it's hard to like the Genius when one stands too close. The narrator clearly shares some of that feeling (or I share that feeling because that's the feeling he wants us to share, or...)