Customer Reviews

Riven Rock

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Boyle has written an almost mythic exploration of the sexual tensions between men and women. There is exquisite irony in the commonality between the two principle male characters: the wealthy and brilliant schizophrenic Stanley McCormick who is deemed to be so dangerous to women that he must be kept away from them forever, and his nurse Eddie O'Kane the supposedly normal male who beats his wife, beds every woman he can, deserts his son, drinks too much, and gets into bar fights. Who is the madman, the book begs us to ask, and who is normal? If both men suffer, and their wives and families also suffer, what is the cure? McCormick's loyal wife Katherine tries to answer this question by engaging in two lifelong pursuits that seem, at first glance, to be unrelated and even contradictory. One is her selfless dedication to her husband's well-being and hope for his cure, and the second is her role as an activist in the women's suffrage movement where she strives for sexual equality and lives, if only temporarily and by choice, in a world without men. But every attempted cure -- from Katherine's response as a social activist to the wackiness of early 20th Century psychiatry, to O'Kane's wives' and girlfriends' manipulations -- fails. Almost a hundred years later, we still don't have a good answer to the question of how men and women are supposed to live together. In the end, Riven Rock is a tragedy and the questions it raises remain unanswered.

T.C. Boyle writes with a manic energy and a sardonic edge that render each and every page dazzling, riveting, and thoroughly enjoyable. He felicity of expression is matched by few of his contemporaries among American novelists (Jonathan Franzen, Tom Wolfe, and John Irving come to mind for me). Consequently, no matter what subject matter he chooses, his books are always a joy to read.

Boyle apparently encountered the historical basis for *Riven Rock* soon after he moved to the Santa Barbara area some years ago. Yes, Stanley McCormick, the tall, handsome youngest son of the legendary inventor of the mechanical reaper, was indeed schizophrenic, he did indeed marry the wealthy socialite Katherine Dexter in 1904, and he did indeed spend most of his adult life locked away with doctors, nurses, and attendants in a palacial Montecito estate. In *Riven Rock*, Boyle takes the historical misfortune that was the McCormick-Dexter marriage and transforms it into a fascinating story that is at once tragic, bizarre, and pathetic, and yet which is also riddled with sometimes unexpected touches of humor.

The humorous veneer to this otherwise tragic tale stems from Boyle's skills as a savage social critic with an unerring eye for the foibles that are part and parcel of the human condition. Having already caricatured the faddish American cult of health and nutrition in *The Road to Wellville*, Boyle here lampoons the pretentions of early twentieth century psychiatry and in a broader way, the overall vapidity of upper class life and discourse.

And Boyle does so much more. By complementing his principal upper-class historical personalities with a supporting cast of purely fictional working class characters (most notably the handsome, testosterone-driven attendant Edward O'Kane) Boyle also is able to reveal the broader foibles associated with the American "war between the sexes."

This steady sprinkling of sardonic humor related to pompous doctors and the hopelessly clueless womanizer O'Kane, however, is in the end overshadowed by the tragedy that marks the real life story of Stanley and Katherine. Stanley's incurable insanity, Katherine's youthful inability to recognize the extent of his affliction, and her subsequent noble but futile willingness to sacrifice on his behalf makes for a truly heartbreaking story that ultimately can have no storybook ending. Moving adroitly back and forth in time as he weaves a narration that spans decades, Boyle is nothing short of brilliant in the way he reveals, bit by small bit, the extent of the pathos that characterizes this saga.

Overall, this is an engrossing and rewarding novel that shows T.C. Boyle to be one of the most gifted and creative contemporary American novelists.

I saw TC Boyle discussing Riven Rock on A&E on a Sundaymorning and it seemed fascinating, so I hopped on Amazon that day andordered it. I've read several novels based on historical facts, so I seen elsewhere the struggle that novelists who write this type of novel are faced with- How do you tell the "truth" without frustrating or boring people if the truth is, in fact, frustrating or boring.

Unfortunately, I was both frustrated and bored with this book. This is my first TC Boyle book and the man can write. I could smell Stanley's rotten teeth and I could see him scrubbing his toes. I also really shared (as best I could) Stanley's fear and disorientation at becoming like his mentally ill sister. This is probably part of the problem.

The story is about a guy with rich and mean parents who meets a girl who, despite the fact that he is CLEARLY becoming more and more mentally ill, marries him anyway. And this is no ordinary woman. This is the first female graduate of MIT, in the physical sciences, no less. This is a woman with a scientific and practical mind. Unfortunately, Boyle is saddled with the task of explaining sympathetically why this woman- despite all evidence suggesting she should borrow Julia Robert's running shoes from that flick last year and RUN LIKE HELL- doesn't. I just didn't buy it. I had assumed that Stanley didn't display evidence of mental illness until after they were married- but oh no. She had every opportunity to make like a tree.

Also- Stanley's mom is made out to be this evil villain b/c she tried to keep Katherine and Stanley from getting married, and then when it dawns on Katherine that she's married a (and I mean this in the nicest way possible) a wacko, Stanely's mom is portrayed as supersized evil because she tells Katherine basically, "you've made your bed- now lie in it." Apparently I'm supersized evil as well, because that's what I was thinking.

I think Katherine is supposed to be perceived as this determined admirable creature. Maybe I've watched too much Oprah, but she just didn't quite have enough sense of self-preservation. I was irritated with her- but I think it's because Boyle is such an incredible writer that she did feel like a true person, worthy of being irritated with.

And the whole story is static ... Aside from this external status quo, there is no internal development- obviously Stan hasn't really grown as a person, so you look towards Katherine- and she just becomes political and gets a girlfriend. I kept hoping something would happen ...P>The problem is that Boyle could elegantly and perfectly describe the most foul smell thing in the world- the question is- do you want to smell it?

As a side note- I did a little research about the characters. Stanely and Katherine are real people, but the nurse Eddie is a fictious character based on Stanley's nurse, but his name wasn't Eddie, and I don't think he was quite the slime Eddie is. I think Boyle simply introduced him so *somebody* would do *something* and Boyle wouldn't be restrained by facts.

I'm a Boyle fan. I'm so glad to have discovered him and to know that every six months or so I can pick up a book (a new one or one of his many earlier works) and enjoy his quirky characters, inventive storylines and his wonderful language. Riven Rock is another strong showing. It's not as purely entertaining as Drop City, or as inventive as A Friend of the Earth, but it's a solid novel that displays all of Boyle's wit and linguistic gusto.

He's so good that I've come to accept certain characteristics of his writing that others might call flaws. For example, I don't think he nails endings with real finality. His books just eventually get to a point where it's time to stop. Everything isn't necessarily wrapped up. Now, if you're looking for things tied up neatly you'll be disappointed. But if you know that's unlikely to happen you'll do just fine. A T.C. Boyle book is likely NOT to lead to Stanley's miraculous recovery. You may hope for it throughout, but any Boyle reader will know not to expect the obvious.

I also find that over various books some of his charactes start to be duplicated in variations. The Edward character from this one, for example, is much like other selfish - horney - fickle - pathetic (and yet charismatic) characters from Boyle stories and novels. It's a type he returns to again and again. Personally, I like that. I'll take a little break, and then pick up another T.C. novel soon.

Riven Rock is fiction based on history and it's worth reading for all its parts -- the fiction, the history and especially for the superb depiction of psychosis. I don't know whether Boyle has ever been psychotic himself, but if not he's observed psychosis closely enough to recreate its all it chilling, devastating and humorous facets. The story is a fictionalized account of two real people -- Stanley McCormick, the insane heir to the International Harvester fortune and his wife Katherine Dexter McCormick, a towering figure in the history of women's rights. There is also a somewhat stereotypical but engaging depiction of one of Stanley's nurses, a Boston Irishman who may also be based on an historical charachter. It's a greal tale, and it's particularly worthwhile reading because along the way Boyle captures the obsessivness, the tics, the wild unpredictability, the whole affect of a psychotic. On top of that he manages to weave into his story an ironic humor that carries us through a tragic tale of love and madness.

For those of us who for years have had to defend our dislike of T.C. Boyle's work as too cryptic and uninvolving, Riven Rock comes as a blessed relief. This poignant story of mental illness, devotion and finally love, sparkles with humor, grand characterizations, and wonderful writing. The true story of turn-of-the-century millionaire Stanley McCormick's incarceration in a grand estate to keep him away from all women (he attacks them), is certainly quirky enough for Boyle, but what makes Riven Rock such a breakthrough is his concentration on the people surrounding the mad millionaire. The tough Irishmen transported to California to care for as well as restrain him are fully realized characters with hopes, dreams and their own sad failings as is Stanley's young wife, who waits and hopes for his recovery. So much hinges on Stanley's return to being the polite, friendly man everyone remembers that Boyle's masterful revelation leaves the reader disarmed. Stanley McCormick was never the person those around him long to believe he can return to being. Instead, his family's tragic history of mental illness unfolds, accompanied by the clues and missing pieces to the puzzle of his life. This is marvelous, sobering stuff, told with such disarming candor that the reader is held in thrall.

I must admit to a personal bias here: I am a gigantic fan of Mr. Boyle's. And while I haven't read every one of his books, I've blasted through a majority and loved every single page. When I saw this book in a store on a random wandering, I snatched it up, read the inside cover and prepared myself for what sounded like Boyle's best work to date. Unfortunately, I was a trifle disappointed, knocking this down to oh say number three of all I've read by him. But there much to admire here, from the glowing, crystal prose to the almost grotesque humor squeezed in between pages and pages of heart-rending sadness. The basic plot, taken very loosely from an actual historical incident, revolves around the handsome, wealthy, Stanley McCormick and the lovely, brilliant (and also wealthy upper class early 20th century) Katherine Dexter, who meet in 1904, fall in love and, after a few hitches, are married. But Stanley is very ill, mentally that is, and he pops over the edge from so many different things you know everything that follows will be a disaster. Stanley has deep sexual problems and before the anticipant, virginal Katherine can be defrocked, Stanley is carted off to the nuthouse, prescribed to never set eyes on women. This lasts for more than twenty years with Katherine being essentially faithful (spending most of her time as a leading spokesperson for the Sufferage movement and other women's right's causes) and hoping that one day Stanley will return to her. The story also focuses on Eddie O'Kane, Stanley's faithful nurse through all his years of institutionalization and his highs and lows and shattered dreams and shattered bones and the whole mess he's made of his life by thinking his natural charm and wit and good luck will be enough for him to always have everything he ever wants. Eddie's tale is a downward spiral, and endless fall into unhappiness, abondonment, alcoholism and financial ruin, all the while trying diligently and sincerely to look after his insane employer and friend. The only complaint I could possibly lob at this wonderful book has to do with Boyle's writing style, something that has been so successful in the past and still is a pleasure to behold. Ever since World's End(1987), Boyle's stories have gotten more serious, I don't want to say more mature, but perhaps there isn't an adaquete word to express this idea. His earliest work was more like bawdy farce and broad satire, but his latest (The Road to Wellville, The Tortilla Curtain, Without a Hero) have been much sadder, stories where you sort of hope things will turn out all right for everyone. In his earlier work, the characters were either such over-the-top morons or such pathetic losers, hell, what should they expect? But his style has always been sharp and funny and very witty. In this book, perhaps a more overall serious tone would have worked better and enhanced the feeling of tragedy. But, then again, this obviously wasn't Boyle's intention and who am I to question his style when the book is such a success?

TC Boyle is such a good writer and story-teller, and this particular story and its attendant characters are so fascinating, that I found I couldn't put the book down. The prose is, for the most part, energetic, riveting, lush, evocative -- everything I've come to expect from Boyle. But I do agree with reviewer A. Maxham that Boyle hasn't dug quite deep enough into the character of Katherine to make us understand how such an obviously intelligent woman could have married the lunatic Stanley. I think he comes close -- love is a strange thing, and people fall in love despite obvious red flags all the time -- but in this case I had trouble believing that, when all was said and done, Katherine would go ahead and marry Stanley anyway. So it took a little more concerted effort to suspend my disbelief concerning that aspect of the book (and it's a central aspect). Still, I was willing to make the effort bec. I was enjoying the book so much, and I was sorry when the story ended.

Too bad I can't give separate stars for writing and for story. The writing is excellent and rates five stars: well observed, smooth. But the plot! Where is it? The same things happen over and over. There is simply no building action, no change in any of the characters. McCormick begins insane and remains insane; Katherine begins loyal and remains loyal; and O'Kane begins as a drunk and a wife beater and ends as a drunk and a wife beater. No one grows or learns a single thing. So what if this is based on a true story? Maybe it's "too true to be good." I've read Boyle before. I really enjoyed only "The Tortilla Curtain" all the way through. He either goes on too long (World's End) or makes too much fun of his characters (East is East). I think I've read my last.

T.C. Boyle is one of our most talented modern day writers, and that ability is clearly demonstrated in "Riven Rock," a story, loosely based on true events which occurred in the beginning of the 20th century (and spans roughly 30 years), about Stanley McCormick, the son of the immensely rich inventor of the reaper, and his confinement due to mental illness to a house located in California, named "Riven Rock" by a younger saner Stanley. Stanley, who also has an insane sister, marries the beautiful brilliant Katherine Dexter, who maintains her loyalty and (perhaps) fidelity to the bitter end. During Stanley's confinement, his "treatment" is administered by various nationally renowned psychiatrists, who employ various techniques, usually influenced by Freud and other psychoanalysts, all with disappointing results. From the point of view of modern medicine, it is easy to see that Stanley is really well beyond any help that these doctors can provide, and may not have been significantly improved even by modern-day psychotropic drugs, for the main and simple reason that Stanley is nuts, really really nuts.

Interestingly, the character that receives more of Boyle's attention than any other is O'Kane, Stanley's chief nurse, who is a womanizer, adulterer, and functioning alcoholic. Largely through O'Kane's eyes, the reader sees the different doctors come and go, and the progress (or lack of it) that Stanley makes under their respective care. Additionally, in alternating chapters, Boyle covers the period of Stanley's courtship of Katherine, the period of their engagement, and their honeymoon and early marriage. While at first, one thinks of Katherine as admirable in her dedication towards her huband's mental well-being, I for one, eventually came to the conclusion that her sticking with Stanley, in an obviously hopeless situation, revealed an obsessive-compulsive disorder on her part. You feel like shaking her and telling her to wake up and smell the coffee.

There is no doubt that T.C. Boyle is an extraordinarily talented writer. His abilities to use metaphor, turn a phrase, and integrate rare words never seen anywhere else, are truly unique and remarkable. I just think "Riven Rock" is too long, and Boyle, sometimes, is simply just showing off his skills. We understand, this guy is totally off his rocker -- so why do we need example after example of his bizarre behavior? In any event, I do recommend "Riven Rock," but wish Boyle (or his editor) had tightened it up a bit.