9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Deceptively Complex, June 30, 2005
This review is from: Glad News of the Natural World: A Novel (Hardcover)
Pearson's latest offering is one of his best. Louis Benfield is all grown up, and who and what he is today poses a challenge for those who believed they "knew" Louis in Short History. Pearson's unrelenting eye for detail, his knack for the laugh-out-loud turn of phrase, and his ability to render setting its own character have never been more impressive.
An initial reading of Glad News seems quick and light, but if one is careful and deliberate, a different novel will emerge. Louis is dark, cynical, and edgy in ways not readily apparent the first time out. Moreover, Pearson's prose has never been tighter; no languid, meandering sentences/paragraphs here. There's not an extra syllable in the entire text, which contributes to the need to read closely and carefully. Louis's actions belie his commentary, at times. Read it twice and see if you don't realize the character within the character and, consequently, recognize Pearson's genius in the process.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
good, with flashes of brilliance, October 3, 2005
This review is from: Glad News of the Natural World: A Novel (Hardcover)
This is quite different from the old T.R. Pearson we knew and
loved. A Short History of a Small Place featured Louis Benfield,
and the writing was narrative and rambled--no fast-food here, you
had to take the sentences slowly and lovingly--brilliant small-
town dialogue. The Benfield-less Blue Ridge had some parts that
took place in New York, and which lacked the charm and delight
of the parts involving small-town life. Glad News is mostly New
York:the writing is good, but not great, Louis Benfield is now
grown up, sentences are more compact, less rambling.
The novel reminded me, strangely, of a non-fiction book "The
Last Serious Thing" about a summer of watching bullfighting in
Spain. One of the matadors was aging, and no longer very
enjoyable to watch--EXCEPT!--that perhaps once every 50 or 100
fights he would have a bull he would like, and you would then
see real brilliance and a breathtaking performance. So the
afficionados would endure poor perormance after poor performance
in the hope of seeing the old unforgettable form. In Glad News
the writing is good, but not memorable (as with Short History)
until suddenly you see a flash of the old brilliance, a stunning
series of passes, a breathtaking faena, to use the bullfight
analogy. When you read these, you want to leap out of your seat,
scream OLE!! with tears running down your face, so to speak.
"Not much trace of the wide world had actually penetrated Neely.
We had an altogether deplorable Chinese restaurant on the bypass
where they tried to compensate with cornstarch for what they
lacked in cooking skill, and there was a sort of a taco shack
out near the public pool which got by on corrupted adaptations
like pulled-pork enchiladas, dirty chowchow, and refried black-
eyed peas." It's passages such as this which make Glad News a
fine novel.
The ending is downbeat. I realize that not all of life is like
Short History, and in real life there must be the downbeat
parts--but a lot of the enjoyment in the Pearson novels is to
read slowly, savor the writing, let it roll around on your
tongue, and escape into a world that helps you forget the
downbeat side of real life for a while. Still--the book is
enjoyable to read, and there are the raisins in the pudding
to nibble on, so to speak.
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