Customer Reviews

Dingley Falls

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is beautifully written - each character has a very distinct voice. It gives an interesting glimpse into a small Connecticut town in 1976. Each of the characters has his or her own demons, some more than others, and it is interesting to follow each of them as they wrestle with them. Some of the characters are more sympathetic than others, although I did not find myself rooting for one or another character as one might in another novel. I recommend this book just for the sheer enjoyment of the writing - Malone obviously loves using words and seeing how they work together and in differing combinations.

This book compares favorably to The Shipping News and should have had more press. It is a delightful tale of a town through the eyes of the current generation and the woes of the previous one. The slimy and the sublime coexist in the small town that sits next to disaster and eats with it, drinks with it and revels in its lunacy. The watershed that feeds this lunacy could well be said to play a major role in its fabulous tale. Malone has done an excellent job.

I was thrilled to find Malone and am wondering where he is today and why he isn't writing another one of these wonderful, bizarre novels. Dingley Falls has a strange premise, a government facility infecting the townspeople of Dingley Falls. Dingley Falls, a strange little town whose citizens include a midget, a gay clergy member, poets and artists, wealthy matriarchs and even a communist-loving rapist. How he manages to make this odd assortment of people amusing is a marvel. Handling Sin is definitely his best(I haven't read them all yet), so far. And if you loved Handling Sin, you will surely enjoy Dingley Falls. Michael Malone reminds me of Richard Russo and John Irving put together with a lighter humorous touch.

Malone is a very talented author. Some reviews on this site have compared his book to the Shipping News. I would not go that far but find him a unique talent. I enjoyed the idea of a story following one town in 1976 during it's homage to it's past but experiencing the growing pains of a new era. I found some of the story lines and graphic writing disturbing( especially the final scene with the police chief's wife.)There is great development with most of the characters but others seem only to fit the stereotype that will forward the plot.When I read the reviews and bought the book I was expecting something along the lines of The Shipping News. This was much darker and edgier and dealt with deeper issues. It also brought out the issues of have vs. have not in an old established town. Having grown up in New England,I am familiar with this culture and Malone has hit the nail on the head. I only wish he had not been so graphic with some of the more violent aspects of the story. It seemed gratuitous to me. I would love to see a sequel to this book(what happens to the young people)? On the whole, I enjoyed this book very much.

Malone, Michael. Dingley Falls (1980). The Delectable Mountains, or, Entertaining Strangers (1976).

One mature novel and one early one-that's what we have here in these lovely novels by Michael Malone. I came to Malone through the back door. I picked up two of his novels -Handling Sin and Uncivil Seasons-- in a used book store. I thought "What have I got to lose?" Then I let them sit for over a year. One night, on a whim, I started reading Handling Sin. Once inside Malone's comic world, bursting with life, joy and intelligence, I was utterly hooked. A month ago, I ordered five more of his novels from Amazon.com. The first two I've read are Dingley Falls and The Delectable Mountains.

Dingley Falls (1980) is a beautiful novel, which is at once comic and tragic. When you enter Dingley Falls, you are in a self-contained universe. It's not Pollyanesque, not at all, for dark and tragic things happen there. There's a rape and a killing. Several people die earlier than they should have because a secret government base nearby is experimenting with no controls on biowarfare and deadly pathogens are released from time to time into the neighboring community.

Among the wonders of this book is the ease with which Malone spins off an amazing number of real comic grotesques. There is also his abundant love for all his characters, even those who are flawed, even those who are evil. (One of the characters in this book is a repulsive neo-Nazi rapist.) His characters are flawed but they are flawed in human ways: you can love (most of) them once you get past their tics. This book is so life affirming! Bad things happen in it -really bad things occasionally--but they're part of Life's Mixed Bag, the bad coming with an awful lot of good. Malone stated in an interview that he felt that with Dingley Falls he had finally hit his stride. I believe him. I love this book!

Entertaining Strangers is Malone's second novel, published in 1976. It is nowhere near as accomplished as Dingley Falls (1980) but is a diverting read nonetheless. It shows Malone's considerable promise as a writer, in particular his skill in juggling a large cast of characters and in depicting humorous grotesques. (There is a crazed, pot-ridden and drunk activist named Spurgeon Debson who outdoes even Hunter S. Thompson, something I never thought I'd say about anyone real or fictitious.)

Strangers is narrated in the first person by Devin Donahue, who is just out of college and lacking direction or purpose. It is 1968, a time when many things were screwed up and a lot more people than just Devin were seriously confused. (The narrative starts: "Like the country, I was really fouled up when summer started in 1968.") Devin's older brother has just become engaged to the love of Devin's life. Devin can't handle it. He cops out, heads to Colorado, to serve as set designer for a terminally disorganized summer theater run by his high school flame, Leila, and her not at all talented husband Mittie. The reader's hopes for disaster are soon abundantly fulfilled in this funny but essentially trivial novel. By the end of the novel, Devin has found a direction, however tentative, for his life. The novel closes on the up beat, a little too tidily but still satisfying.

With the great American comic novelist Stanley Elkin dead, I am glad we still have Michael Malone around.

This book is not only well written but it is a dlightful story of a bunch of quirky peoople in a small town.

First if all this book has so many charachters with not so interesting lives that even after reading 300 of the about 700 pages I still was not drawn to continue. This was a book that 8 fellow friends tried to read and we all felt similar, one or two of us even shot to the end to see if there was anything groundbreaking that would make us want to continue. Sadly not. Of the 6 books we have read together so far this was the only stinker.