"My great ambition has always prevented me from doing anything."
THE LOCUST HAVE NO KING is the second novel I have read by Dawn Powell this year. The first being ANGELS ON TOAST http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2009/03/angels-on-toast-by-dawn-powell.html
LOCUST shares Powell’s unique insight into different strata’s of New York social structure and consequently is also a reflection on greater America as a whole. A bustling, vibrant America in the grasp of both pre and post World War II booms filled with dog eat dog social climbers, star-crossed love affairs, the eccentric wealthy, drunken cynics, and all manner of entertaining lowlifes from all different levels of society.
In this case, the setting is New York’s publishing industry and to a lesser extent the theatre. The star crossed lovers in this case are Frederick Olliver, a college professor and writer of meticulously researched but dull historical novels and Lyle Gaynor, one half of a playwriting duo with the other half being her domineering crippled husband Alan.
The third player in this story is Dodo Brennan, a shrill young woman of such spectacular vulgarity and absolutely no morals and who is so ridiculous and over the top that every scene she appears in makes the reader wince. Yet, somehow Powell pulls off this character.
The pace of this novel is far less frenetic than ANGELS. The title (from a biblical quotation) refers to how living things can move and interconnect in an organized way without an apparent leader like a school of fish which is very apropos to the organized chaos in this story. What keeps this story going are the characters. Their development is deep and extensive. Powell must have had a lot of patience to develop characters this way. I agree with the blurb on the book’s back jacket which states Powell dissects characters “with the patience of a pathologist removing organs for inspection”.
However, Powell was well-known for the sense of humor in her work and this book is just not as screamingly funny as other things she wrote. Perhaps this is because some of the scenes seem a bit long which dilutes the humor. I think forty pages could have easily been cut out especially the scenes involving Caroline Drake and Lorna Leahy who seem to be in the narrative as some sort of Greek chorus but end up having lengthy scenes to themselves that serve no purpose. On the flip side, the relationship between Alan Gaynor and a new maid, which is very important to the end of the book, is only shown to us in one scene. It should have been developed more since it means a lot to the resolution of the storyline.
Don’t get me wrong….This is a good read and, overall, I enjoyed it but it doesn’t flow as well as ANGELS for the reasons I’ve already stated. I still look forward to reading much more of Dawn Powell.
That being said, I would like to say that the ending, a happy one, where Lyle and Frederick re-state their love for one another as an announcement of the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests play on the radio is very moving….Love is, in the end, what keeps us safe and connected to the world.
THE LOCUST HAVE NO KING is the second novel I have read by Dawn Powell this year. The first being ANGELS ON TOAST http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2009/03/angels-on-toast-by-dawn-powell.html
LOCUST shares Powell’s unique insight into different strata’s of New York social structure and consequently is also a reflection on greater America as a whole. A bustling, vibrant America in the grasp of both pre and post World War II booms filled with dog eat dog social climbers, star-crossed love affairs, the eccentric wealthy, drunken cynics, and all manner of entertaining lowlifes from all different levels of society.
In this case, the setting is New York’s publishing industry and to a lesser extent the theatre. The star crossed lovers in this case are Frederick Olliver, a college professor and writer of meticulously researched but dull historical novels and Lyle Gaynor, one half of a playwriting duo with the other half being her domineering crippled husband Alan.
The third player in this story is Dodo Brennan, a shrill young woman of such spectacular vulgarity and absolutely no morals and who is so ridiculous and over the top that every scene she appears in makes the reader wince. Yet, somehow Powell pulls off this character.
The pace of this novel is far less frenetic than ANGELS. The title (from a biblical quotation) refers to how living things can move and interconnect in an organized way without an apparent leader like a school of fish which is very apropos to the organized chaos in this story. What keeps this story going are the characters. Their development is deep and extensive. Powell must have had a lot of patience to develop characters this way. I agree with the blurb on the book’s back jacket which states Powell dissects characters “with the patience of a pathologist removing organs for inspection”.
However, Powell was well-known for the sense of humor in her work and this book is just not as screamingly funny as other things she wrote. Perhaps this is because some of the scenes seem a bit long which dilutes the humor. I think forty pages could have easily been cut out especially the scenes involving Caroline Drake and Lorna Leahy who seem to be in the narrative as some sort of Greek chorus but end up having lengthy scenes to themselves that serve no purpose. On the flip side, the relationship between Alan Gaynor and a new maid, which is very important to the end of the book, is only shown to us in one scene. It should have been developed more since it means a lot to the resolution of the storyline.
Don’t get me wrong….This is a good read and, overall, I enjoyed it but it doesn’t flow as well as ANGELS for the reasons I’ve already stated. I still look forward to reading much more of Dawn Powell.
That being said, I would like to say that the ending, a happy one, where Lyle and Frederick re-state their love for one another as an announcement of the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests play on the radio is very moving….Love is, in the end, what keeps us safe and connected to the world.
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