As Americans we like to see the spoiled rich kid/person get his comeuppance. We get tired of watching him flaunt his money and not care about the people around him, and we just wish that he would "get what's coming to him." I think this is an especially significant thought given the state of the current economy, which is falling in shambles around us. The "D" word is rearing its ugly head and we're not so sure we're going to be able to put it down...There are people all over the country who are struggling to make ends meet, and there are people who, like Carly Fiorina, have taken millions in "golden parachutes" while thousands went jobless. What's going to happen to all of those corporate executives that lost their jobs, or will lose their jobs due to their being "rendered superfluous" due to the fact that their greed led their company down the path of bankruptcy and being bought out by an even larger bank? Are we, as regular Americans going to cry over them, offer them our pity? No. We're going to be like that character Nelson in the Simpsons and say "Eh-heh!"(or ah-ha! in that "I told you so/you suck" kind of way). Much of what is happening now to the very wealthy, as their financial windfalls go down the proverbial tube, is very reminiscent of Booth Tarkington's The Magnificent Ambersons. Ambersons, the second novel to win a Pulitzer prize(1919) and the first of Tarkington's novels to win the prize(Alice Adams, which I read a while ago won a short three years later in 1922)is a sweeping epic of a wealthy family's demise into deject poverty. It is an excellent book and has been named to the Modern Library's 100 best novels of the 20th century list, and I actually think that it deserves it(at least at this point of my reading career). What I think is important about this novel, as a little background, is it, through the characters lives, shows how the world changed through the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries. This was a big change, the change from horse-drawn carriages to cars, the change from gas lights to electricity, the rise of progress, the rise of the middle class, the rise of pollution. In the midst of all of this is the family the Ambersons, who seem to be at the start of the progress, but get left behind as the progress moves forward. The Ambersons are of old money, the kind that become wealthy due to real estate and then sit on their money forever, reaping the rewards. The grandson, George Amberson Minafer, on whom the book focuses most intently, is the worst kind of spoiled rich kid. His grandfather worked hard to take advantage of real estate market turns, made an insane amount of money, and then went into retirement. Because he was so rich, the rest of the family didn't have to really do shit. They could just live off of grandpa's money, which was what they did; investing in what they thought was good without much business sense, planning on getting richer or, if they didn't, expecting there to be more where it came from. George Amberson Minafer starts out the book as a little boy, who rides his pony and then pony and carriage at a tear through the town(a fictional Midwestern town), not caring who is in his path, and then even laughing if he makes a human fall down or startles another animal. He has the worst kind of attitude, he takes it for granted that his family is the wealthiest in the city and that everyone should be beholden to him, as well as care what he thinks, what he does, he is drunk, even as a young child with a sense of entitlement and of his own power. He is stubborn and pig-headed and is always thinking of what will be best for the family given their "status." You LOVE to hate this guy. Then, George Minafer becomes a young man, and he meets Lucy Morgan at a party. He is instantly enamored, and also possessive. Oftimes one wonders what the hell she sees in him, but they continue to court for a long time. It is during this time that George finds out that Lucy is the daughter of a former beau of his beautiful(and even though she has the VERY unfortunate trait of never seeing any fault with her son, regardless of what anyone says)and still attractive mother. The Morgans(Eugene being the father)have moved back into town after living elsewhere for a long time, and Eugene wants to get in to the car production business. George of course scoffs at the idea, thinking that cars are just a passing fad(HOW WRONG HE IS!), and never takes Eugene and his ever increasing fortune seriously, because of course he is so wrapped up in himself! It is only when gossip starts to amount around him about his now widowed mother and Mr. Morgan that he begins to become upset and take charge, since no one can ruin the Amberson name! So concerned with the possible ruin of the family's good name(and also, though perhaps subconsciously the loss of the total and complete attention of his mother), he refuses to let his mother associate with Eugene(who wants to marry his mother), which even though she complies willingly because for her the sun rises and sets in her son, it is emotionally devastating, and while the wealth of the Ambersons is eclipsed by other families that work for their money, that create wealth through business...during this time George Amberson Minafer goes to college, but doesn't really try to achieve anything because he doesn't feel that he needs to, in his words:
'"Lucy," he said, finally, with cold dignity, "I should like to ask you a few questions." [break] "Yes?" [break] "The first is: Haven't you perfectly well understood that I don't mean to go into business or adopt a profession?"[break]"I wasn't quite sure," she said gently. "I really didn't know--quite."[break] "Then of course it's time I did tell you. I never have been able to see any occasion for a man's going into trade, or being a lawyer, or any of those things if his position and family were such that he didn't need to. You know, yourself, there are a lot of people in the East--in the South, too for that matter--that don't think we've got any particular family or position or culture in this part of the country. I've met plenty of that kind of provincial snobs myself, and they're pretty galling. There were one or two men in my crowd at college, their families had lived on their income for three generations, and they never dreamed there was anybody in their class out here. I had to show them a thing or two, right at the start, and I guess they won't forget it! Well, I think it's time all their sort found out that three generations can mean just as much out here as anywhere else. That's the way I feel about it, and let me tell you I feel it pretty deeply!" [break] "But what are you going to do, George?" she cried.[break] George's earnestness surpassed hers; he had become flushed and his breathing was emotional. As he confessed, with simple genuineness, he did feel what he was saying "pretty deeply"; and in truth his state approached the tremulous. "I expect to live an honourable life," he said. "I expect to contribute my share to charities, and to take part in--in movements." [break] "What kind?" [break] "Whatever appeals to me," he said. [break] Lucy looked at him with grieved wonder. "But you really don't mean to have any regular business or profession at all?" [break] "I certainly do not!" George returned promptly and emphatically.' (131-132). It is at this point that Lucy sincerely starts to distance herself from him. He continues to live off of his family's money and deludes himself into believing that his family has clout, while it is the families like the Morgans that continue to make money in the industrial boom that surpass his family in wealth. When his mother, and then his grandfather die and leave the family penniless...he has to take a job in a plant that makes explosives; it's dangerous work, but he needs it to give his aunt a quality of life that's slightly better than complete poverty. In an ironic twist, while hurrying to work, he is hit by a car(which he poo-poos for most of the books), and it is the Morgans(Eugene, who was devastated by the loss of George's mother, both when she was alive as she was forced to distance herself from Eugene because of George, and of course at her actual death; and Lucy, who never married after her courtship with George)who get over their own feelings and help him out, they forgive. Will the U.S. taxpayers be so kind to those who have fallen due to the economy? I dunno, greed will only get you so far. I think one of the best scenes in the book is when George looks in his boarding house lobby(before his accident) and sees a newly printed book with "the title: "A Civic History" and beneath the title, the rubric, "Biographies of the 500 Most Prominent Citizens and Families in the History of the City." (246) It nags at him to look at it, and wonder...he finally does and when he does, his family's name is not there. "The elevator boy noticed nothing unusual about him and neither did Fanny, when she came in from church with her hat ruined, an hour later. And yet something had happened--a thing which, years ago, had been the eagerest hope of many, many good citizens of the town. They had thought of it, longed for it, hoping acutely that they might live to see the day when it would come to pass. And now it had happened at last: Georgie Minafer had got his come-upance. [break] He had got it three times filled, and running over. The city had rolled over his heart, burying it under, as it rolled over the Major's and buried it under. The city had rolled over the Ambersons and buried them under to the last vestige; and it mattered little that George guessed easily enough that most of the five hundred Most Prominent had paid something substantial "to defray the cost of steel engraving, etc."--the Five Hundred had heaved the final shovelful of soot upon that heap of obscurity wherein the Ambersons were lost forever from sight and history. "Quicksilver in a nest of cracks!" [break] Georgie Minafer had got his come-upance, but the people who had so longed for it were not there to see it, and they never knew it. Those who were still living had forgotten all about it and all about him. (247) The book could have ended here, but of course it doesn't, and the Morgans get to show their forgiveness, amazing in the face of how George treated them. I just wonder how forgiving the American people will be after this economic crisis pans out??? PPs-46, GGs-37.

This is a part 1 of 2. I have read both of the books I need to write about a fairly long time ago(in relation to this post), but I haven't had time to devote to writing a blog about either of them. Now with library fees mounting and mounting, I need to get something down so that I don't forget these books a few years from now when I sit down to write a memoir about reading all of these books. The two books in question are Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson and The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington. I have also read Adele Wiseman's The Sacrifice in the past few weeks, but I own that novel, so I'm not as much on a time crunch as with the other two. Out of those two library stragglers, James Alan McPherson's book is the most recent win in the Pulitzer chain(winner in 1978) and I read that one earlier, about a month ago now. But, time passes and I get busy; it's a book that I also wasn't super into documenting, because I was a little disappointed by it. I wrote a review for amazon.com on the book, but I must admit that I was a little more judicious towards the collection of short stories because all of the other people who reviewed it thought it was AMAZING, or at least very very good. I think it's getting to be important that I don't read reviews of books before I start a book because perhaps it is biasing me towards having expectations that are unrealistic. Well, let's get to what McPherson's book is about, mostly so that I won't forget. Elbow Room is a collection of short stories that mainly focuses on relationships between black and white people and blacks themselves. The concept of the stories is very interesting and the stories themselves are even very good, but they are not, unfortunately, in the same league as some of the other short story collections I've read so far for this project, like Jhumpa Lahiri's work or Robert Olen Butler, or Mavis Gallant...not to mention others, like the ever illustrious Alice Munro or even Greg Hollingshead. I think McPherson's book is important, and as I'm seeing the project unfold, what is interesting is that it contributes to the PP canon sensibly, meaning it fullfills an integral part of the American experience that hasn't been documented in that fashion yet. If you look at the Pulitzer Prize history as a patchwork quilt, which I am starting to feel like I am(same for the Canadian award)then it has it's place, just like the faded t-shirt with the Black power logo on it would in a quilt depicting the history of the American people. There are some stories in the collection that are pretty good:

"The Story of a Scar" is a really interesting story of love and youth and how things can go awry really fast if you don't play your hand in love the best way or you choose the wrong person with which to share your love...A man and woman are sitting in a doctor's office and the man asks the woman how she got the scar on her face and she begins to unfold this story about her relationship with a man who is too possessive and when she decides, in not the best way, to start hanging out with another man who is definitely a "playa" her face meets some unfortunate consequences that will be etched into her literally and figuratively forever. The woman says at one point in the beginning of the story "'I was pretty once,' she began, sniffing heavily. 'When I was about sixteen my mama's preacher was set to leave his wife and his pulpit and run off with me to Deetroit City. Even with this scar and all the weight I done put on, you can still see what I had.' She paused. 'Cain't you?' she asked significantly" (121). You can sense the desperation in this comment even better when you read the complete story and see a woman who is searching for love in all the wrong places...

"A Loaf of Bread" is also a great story about those who have and those who have not...A grocer, Harold Green, is caught selling his groceries for more in the crappy ass poor section of L.A. than in the other more well-off neighboorhoods(he has three stores). His argument is that it is because the neighborhood is so unsafe that he has to spend more to keep the store, with bars on the windows and other security measures. The citizens of this poor neighboorhood organize against him and protest and even get press coverage. Green's wife finally suggests that he have the store open one day and give everything away for free, but Green doesn't want to do it at all, he is stubborn and even somewhat blinds himself to the situation before him with this store. Nelson Reed is a neighborhood man who organizes the people of the neighborhood against the store and Mr. Green, and they even have a public debate on television...The short story juxtaposes between Mr. Green and his wife and their side of the story and Mr. Reed and his wife and their side of the story. The animosity between the two men builds and builds and builds. Finally one Saturday morning, Mr. Green opens his store, having given the two employees he has the day off, and expecting very few customers. His first customer, somehow, with her smile unleashes a wave of goodwill, and Mr. Green tells her that her goods are free. Word spreads and everyone comes into the store from that neighborhood to get the free groceries. They come in and fight over each other to get things and take things out of each other's hands. Mr. Reed is one of the first people into the store, but leaves without buying anything. Finally, Harold Green is standing alone by himself, in the midst of all this destruction, and Nelson Reed comes in.
"The grocer waved his arms about the empty room. Not a display case had a single item standing. 'All gone,' he said again, as if addressing a stupid child. 'There is nothing left to get. You, my friend, have come back too late for a second load. I am cleaned out.' [paragraph break] Nelson Reed stepped into the store and strode toward the counter. He moved through wine-stained flour, lettuce leaves, red, green, and blue labels, bits and pieces of broken glass. He walked toward the counter. [para break] 'All day,' the grocer laughed, not quite hysterically now, 'all day long I have not made a single cent of profit. The entire day was a loss. This store, like the others, is bleeding me.' He waved his arms about the room in a magnificent gesture of uncaring loss. 'Now do you understand?' he said. 'Now will you put yourself in my shoes? I have nothing here. Come, now, Mr. Reed, would it not be so bad a thing to walk in my shoes?' [break] 'Mr. Green,' Nelson Reed said coldly. 'My wife bought a loaf of bread in here this mornin'. She forgot to pay you. I, myself, have come here to pay you your money.' [break] 'Oh,' the grocer said. [break] 'I think it was brown bread. Don't that cost more than white?' [break] The two men looked away from each other, but not at anything in the store.[break] 'In my store, yes,' Harold Green said. He rang the register with the most casual movement of his finger. The register read fifty-five cents. [break] Nelson Reed held out a dollar. [break] 'And two cents tax,' the grocer said. [break] The man held out the dollar. [break] 'After all,' Harold Green said, 'We are all, after all, Mr. Reed, in debt to the government.' [break] He rang the register again. It read fifty-seven cents. [break] Nelson Reed held out a dollar." (210-211) This concludes the story, and it is moving and loaded with meaning.

My favorite story, though, has to be the first one, "Why I Like Country Music." It starts off with this great quote "No one will believe that I like country music. Even my wife scoffs when told such a possibility exists. 'Go on!' Gloria tells me. 'I can see blues, bebop, maybe even a little buckdancing. But not bluegrass.' Gloria says, 'Hillbilly stuff is not just music. It's like the New York Stock Exchange. The minute you see a sharp rise in it, you better watch out.'" The narrator goes on to counter that argument, and describes his childhood in South Carolina, when a beautiful little girl comes into his fourth grade class. She is Northern born, like the narrator's wife, and thus has even more exocitism than just her looks. To South Carolina blacks, the North was this amazingly different yet wonderful place. The narrator says: "You must know that in those days older folks would point to someone and say, 'He's from the North,' and the statement would be sufficient in itself. Mothers made their children behave by advising that, if they led exemplary lives and attended church regularly, when they died they would go to New York. Only someone who understands what London meant to Dick Whittington, or how California and the suburbs function in the national mind, could appreciate the mythical dimensions of this Northlore." (12-13) The story continues to talk about a young boy's love/crush on this little girl and how his only real chance to be close to her is through square dancing. And he does everything he can to be this girl's partner in the square dancing or in the maypole, one of the two activities for the class in their spring activities. His love, Gweneth Larson, is going to maypole, so he wants to maypole too, but he gets picked for square dancing, so he gets his dad involved in making the teacher switch him(there's great descriptions of the teacher too, that remind you of any bossy no-nonsense grade school teacher you've ever had)to maypole. At the last minute Gweneth gets switched over to square dancing and his plans are thwarted. She is to dance with the narrator's arch enemy! But at the last minute, Leon Hugh(the archenemy)has spurs on his shoes(a costume addition given to him by his brother)and the teacher makes him go to take them off. The narrator is given his chance! And of course this dance is never forgotten. And the narrator concludes by saying "I do remember quite well that during the final promenade before the record ended, Gweneth stood beside me and I said to her in a voice much louder than that of the caller, 'When I get up to Brooklyn I hope I see you.' But I do not remember what she said in response. I want to remember that she smiled. [break] I know I smiled, dear Gloria. I smiled with the lemonness of her and the loving of her pressed deep into those saving places of my private self. It was my plan to savor these, and I did savor them. But when I reached New York, many years later, I did not think of Brooklyn. I followed the old, beaten, steady paths into uptown Manhattan. By then I had learned to dance to many other kinds of music. And I had forgotten the savory smell of lemon. But I think sometimes of Gweneth now when I hear country music. And although it is difficult to explain to you, I still maintain that I am no mere arithmetician in the art of the square dance. I am into the calculus of it. [break] 'Go on!' you will tell me, backing into your Northern mythology. 'I can see the hustle, the hump, maybe even the Ibo highlife. But no hillbilly.' [break] These days I am firm about arguing the point, but, as always, quietly, and mostly to myself." (30-31)

Like I said before, there were some great stories in this collection, and now that I'm going through it, perhaps I should rate the collection a bit higher, but it is still not like some of the others I've already mentioned. However, in the quilt it will remain, threaded together with all the other books of American life that came before it and all that have come since.