Customer Reviews

Shadow Of A Man

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I have enjoyed numerous Sarton titles, but unfortunately I didn't get beyond page 175 of this one. I couldn't relate to any of the characters: unlikable, dated, boring and cold. Maybe it's difficult not to write a cold book about cold people. And the love affair! Not very believable. Try "The Small Room" instead.

I am a great fan of Sarton's, but this book is certainly one of her lesser lights. A tempestuous, immature young man goes to Europe, has a fling, and becomes the sort of fellow who could and will marry the girl next door. Frances is unappealing in either incarnation although neighbor girl develops color in both her cheeks and her personality during her summer away from him. The most intriguing character is his dead mother; perhaps she died from the stultifying intellectual blather of her family and friends.

Along with his transformation from cad to mensch, Frances goes from Francophile to All-American. Unclear why as he still views American landscapes as ugly and American faces "like cows, bland and empty." No secret what Sarton's political inclinations are, but she doesn't usually let them shine through in such an effete, unpleasant way.

I read this book because it was a selection of my novels reading group. Had I browsed it in a bookstore I doubt I would have chosen it. I haven't read any other works by May Sarton, although I understand her other works are moving and important. This review is based on the text alone.

The basic story is of a young man who finds his way to maturity through a love affair with an older woman. The character is not well drawn. His immaturity is supposedly illustrated by his saying "Gosh" and "Gee" a lot. He is also terribly irritable and overly dramatic, more like a teenager would be, although he is said to be 26, so I though "immature" might be age 20, sophomoric. He is also represented to be a Harvard graduate student. We are told he hasn't chosen a direction yet, but I don't think Harvard graduate schools take such students. In the last few pages we learn that he was a French major, coming out of his background as a native of France for the first 12 years of his life.
There are many annoying writing mannerisms, such as inverted word order: You like this, the tea? So gigantic it was; repeated phrases: "left him, left him,"charmed to see him like this, charmed..."the love affair, and especially this love affair";a sort of This...with his..., this: This young man with his...," "This puritanical man who asked so much, with his..."over and over.

There are too many inaccuracies. For example, we see the hero Francis as cold and inhibited at the beginning, but he is described by another character as a wild creature, for no apparent reason.

It doesn't make sense to me why a love affair with an older woman in Paris which ends with her rejection of him should lead him at last to the decision he wants to teach and make him a better man. He magically gets a position as a teacher in a small college in Iowa, but in preparing is floored by the possibility he might have to follow a textbook. As a teacher I found this uproariously funny.

The resolution finally warms up at a summer family gather in Maine, where he finally levels with people, instead of being manipulative as at the beginning. In the finale, he proposes marriage to Ann, a girl he has been friends with, but they have not shown any chemistry in years of friendship. Francis's stepfather arrives on the affiancing scene, fortunately bearing a diamond brooch for the occasion, typical of the artificiality of this book.
I found Shadow of a Man to be imitative of the French movies of its time (1950), inaccurate, with unbelievable characters.

Maybe Sarton's poetry and her autobiographical material is better.

Francis Adams Chabrier was the son of Persis Bradford. Alan Bradford was her second husband. The two men were left to face each other when she died suddenly of a heart attack. Alan, a Chinese scholar, considered that death put a mask on everyone's face.

At the first opportunity Francis left to take a walk on the impersonal streets. Persis had been a powerful person. Her first husband had been an aviator and a philosopher. After his death, Francis, age 12, and Persis moved to Mount Vernon Street in Boston.

When Alan Bradford saw Persis in his fifties he immediately wanted to marry her. Francis didn't know why Persis had married again. She had made herself into a good research assistant, learning Chinese.

As with all Sarton novels, this one is highly schematic, which doesn't mean it isn't deeply felt. The plot moves forward swiftly to an encounter between Francis and his mother's dear friend Solange in Paris. Among other things this is a coming-of-age novel with a focus on Francis. He had two wounds, his mother's second marriage and her death, and only the wounded see.