Customer Reviews

The Lost Boy: A Novella (Chapel Hill Books)

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This book is a gem! It is brimming with lyricism, longing and passion. It is Wolfe at his very best. For those who feel that Wolfe tended to ramble, here they will find him constrained by the limits of the novella form. They will find his skill for characterization (which was always remarkable) honed to an even higher degree of excellence in this piece. The story is autobiographical and deeply felt by Wolfe and he succeeds in transmitting those feelings to the reader. It is my belief that even if he had written nothing else, his reputation could rest comfortably on this piece alone.

Thanks to the auspices of the University of North Carolina Press this incarnation of one of the wonders of Thomas Wolfe rises out of the past intact. Apparently the original novella was written in 1937, then edited rather drastically for publication in Redbook (for reasons that are obvious in reading the full novella), the complete and unabridged novella is presented here in a fine edition that includes the illustrations by Ed Lindlof and the obvious commitment of editing by James W. Clark, Jr who also provides an illuminating and sensitive introduction to this edition.

Every reader knows Thomas Wolfe's 'Look Homeward, Angel' and so will not be surprised to find this book falling into the same friendly autobiographical vein as Wolfe's other works. The novella is only 77 pages long but the imagery and skillful writing of Wolfe is present on every page. THE LOST BOY refers to Thomas' older brother Grover who died at theyoung age of 12 years form typhoid fever. In this book Grover is recreated for the reader in four parts. The first rhapsodic section is related by Grover himself and the various stores around the Square he remembered - Markham's piano store, the stingy old Crocker's candy store where he bartered for candy using stamps, the Garret's grocery store with pickle barrels, rounds of cheese, coffee grinder, canned fish and other delicacies. The afternoon is in April and the reason for Grover's being there is the World's Fair.

In Part II we meet Grover's mother recalling the train trip to St Louis for the Fair and discover that Grover was the favorite of her children: she is trapped in the past, unable to get past the fact that her shining Grover died too young. Yet in this part is also included the reason the story was originally edited: there is an extended section where a Negro man enters Grover's cabin and, according to his mother and to Grover, he must return to 'his own cabin area'. In Part III Grover's older sister remembers the 1904 trip to St Louis and then recalls the details of Grover's illness and subsequent death form Typhoid. Pet IV is related by Thomas Wolfe himself as he returns in 1937 to the house where he and his family lived and speaks with the woman who lives there now - focusing on the large room where Grover died, a room now occupied by the woman's renters.

'And then it would be gone again, fading like cloud shadows in the hills, going like faces lost in a dream, coming like the vast, the drowsy rumors of the distant and enchanted Fair, and coming, going, coming, being found and lost, possessed and held and never captured, like lost voices in the mountains, long ago, like the dark eyes and the quiet face, the dark lost boy, my brother, who himself like shadows, or like absence in the house, would come, would go, and would return again.'

That is the story - four versions of a lost child - but the beauty of course is in the exquisite writing of Wolfe. He reminds us here of how great literature reads and because of the work of Clark and Lindlof we gain access to a work that has been dormant for far too long. Brilliant little book! Grady Harp, October 11

Ever remembered a sentence or two from the book and, still later on, didn't recall where it comes from? Well, there is one in the 'The lost boy' that I'd say I'll never forget. It goes: 'Light came and went and came again...' I would believe this is the best definition of Time I've ever read. It tells what we all already know - that the Time is here, all around, that it passes, eternally, incessantly, giving us no chance to do anything about it. And although there's much more to the nouvellette, it's worth reading it from the beginning to the end. It's 'realness' moves you all along.

This is a very brief story, which can be read in a couple of hours. It is a compilation of viewpoints, or remembrances, of a boy who died at the age of 12 from typhoid (before there was such a thing as antibiotics). The remembrances are from the relatives' standpoint. The boy was apparently a mature, very intelligent and principled young man. As with the death of all children, the event was a sad one.

There was one part which was disturbing, frankly sickening. During a train trip, the mother and son travel from Missouri, which has Jim Crow laws, into Indiana. As soon as the border is crossed, a black passenger moves from the black carriage into the white carriage. The mother objects and the black passenger explains that they are now in Indiana. The boy confronts the man and sends him back to "where he belongs," in the process humiliating him. I can understand that Wolfe used that incident to make the point that Grover was courageous and principled, yet the specific instance is nonetheless sickening. This one event marred an otherwise good narration. (I would be curious to know what was Wolfe's stand on the race issue at the time) In short, Grover was no Huck Finn.