Customer Reviews

Remembering Laughter

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About five years ago I stumbled onto Wallace Stegner, and I haven't been able to leave him behind. I just got around to reading _Remembering Laughter_ this past winter, mainly because it was usually not even listed among his better books; that is too bad.

Stegner is one of the best American writers that hardly anybody knows, and this is probably one of his most underrated works. "Haunting" and "poignant" are two words that I almost always find myself using when describing Stegner's novels, and this novella is clearly in that category. This book is a great intro to Stegner. _Crossing to Safety_ and _The Spectator Bird_ are better, but in economy of words, this one holds its own.

For those of you who have never read Stegner, this is a great place to start. For those of you who have read Stegner, this is a delight to read. It's possible to see in this book the genesis of all of the stylistic techniques that Stegner would later employ to such great effect.

I regularly give this book to friends as a gift, usually in the hopes that they will also discover the joy of reading Wallace Stegner.

Stegner's brief, taut novel tells a haunting story of infidelity and the destruction of life that happens in the midst of shameless behavior. Set in the rural Iowa around the turn of 20th C., Alec and Margaret meet her sister Elspeth, arriving from Scotland, at the train station. Before long, Alec and Elspeth are romantic and the child from their liaison becomes the source of constant pain and love between the embattled, embittered three.

Stegner writes a straight-forward tale, giving personality to Iowa landscape and seasons much like Willa Cather did in her novels and stories. For this, he is clearly one of the West's better writers.

What stays with you after reading this tale is the horror of shame and then the loneliness of shamelessness. Each character lives in his or her shadows until the spell is broken by the son: Malcolm.

This story is the iceberg's tip in morality and the shame that lost decisions bring with them. Just because this novel is brief does not mean that it is light. Read it for a quick study in morality, grief, shame, and love.

Illustrating Tolstoy's observation that "all happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," Wallace Stegner's first novel, REMEMBERING LAUGHTER (1936), travels from the heighths of laughter (p. 13) to the depths of family grief in just 150 pages. Along the way, Stegner introduces us to Margaret Stuart and her younger sister, Elspeth, and then reveals the dark secret of infidelity binding them together in a constantly eroding relationship. While only in their forties, Stegner observes the twin-like sisters "were two old women sentenced to the prison they had made for themselves, doomed to wear away slowly, toughly; to fade and wither and dry up inch by inch in the silence of their house" (p. 150). Although it lacks much of the depth of Stegner's BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN (1943), ALL THE LITTLE LIVE THINGS (1967), and his Pulitzer-Prize-winning ANGLE OF REPOSE (1971), three novels which reveal a writer at the heighths of his talent, REMEMBERING LAUGHTER nevertheless offers a compelling tale you won't soon forget.

G. Merritt

I read Stegner's "Spectator Bird" about 20 years ago and loved that book. I wanted a quick read and stumbled on this one - originally written in 1937. Mostly soap opera, but oh-so tautly written. Very well-painted characters. If only all novels can be written with such power and economy as this one! I'll be looking for more Stegner to read now that my interest in this author has been rekindled by "Remembering Laughter."

Since I've read several other Stegner books and his Crossing to Safety is a favorite novel of mine, I thought I'd try Remembering Laughter, his very first novel, or 'novelette,' as it was first called. The subject - marital infidelity - is dealt with most delicately, which gives the book something of a quaint, dated feeling. The writing itself, however, is assured and eloquent and gives a good, if limited, sense of Iowa farm life at the turn of the 20th century. My gut response to this short read, with all its details of repressed feelings and pent-up sexuality as well as untimely tragic death and dark family secrets, was that it evokes a kind of Ethan-Frome-in-Iowa feeling. I would recommend the book to any student of Wallace Stegner's work. - Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir BOOKLOVER

Wallace Stegner's first novel, short, direct, and powerfully written. Set on a midwestern farm around the turn of the twentieth century, fun-loving Alec is married to prim and proper Margaret. After Margaret's younger sister Elspeth comes to live with them, she and Alec have an affair, with devastating consequences for the three. A son, Malcolm, is born out of the affair, who is raised thinking Alec is his uncle and Margaret his aunt. He finally learns the truth at novel's end, which is the weakest section of the book: it all transpires too quickly which diminishes the force of the revelation. But Stegner's writing is strong and vigorous; he is especially good at portraying Alec's wit and playfulness through his use of exaggerations and folkloric "whoppers." The icy cold relationship between Margaret and Elspeth (reminiscent to me of that between the characters in Edith Wharton's ETHAN FROME), is truly destructive and tragic. A fine debut achievement.

This was a thought provoking and interesting book that provided insights to human character. Loved it.

i read this book out of pretty much force b/c of a project i had to do... but after reading it i was gLad i read this book. this book started out sLow b/c i didnt want to read this book but after like 10 pages i was hooked. this book is really good and very well detaiLed. i gaurantee that if you start you wont put it down until you finish.