In a Shallow Grave [Paperback]

James Purdy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2001

beautiful, moving novel of a love triangle

Editorial Reviews

Review

James Purdy is one of the best writers in America today, an artist as well as a superb craftsman. With his command of classical American colloquial speech and his almost scientific grasp of the horrors that lurk just beneath the surface of civilized behavior, Purdy is a master of a form of fiction that demands total suspension of disbelief and participation in the ritual bloodletting of society as a whole. Garnet Montrose is a man severely disfigured in the war, a modern leper, an often drugged prophet of the disintegration of values. Unwilling to hide in a veteran's hospital, Montrose returns to his home in Virginia. Obsessed with a childhood sweetheart, now the widow Georgina Rance, he devises an elaborate system of correspondence to woo her, depending on his "applicants" to carry letters to the lady. The relationship with these applicants forms the basis of the book. Quintus Pearch is quiet and mysterious, a wraithlike character who reads to Montrose from abstract tomes and rubs his master's feet with cynical adoration. Potter Daventry is a wild young man with twisted values and a go-for-broke attitude. Daventry courts Georgina for Montrose, then for himself. He marries her and is carried away by a freak storm. The implications are biblical in proportion; Purdy utilizes every subtlety and shading of language to enhance the demented howlings of these three lost souls. Purdy's skill consists of taking the familiar and distorting it; the results are often eerie." I would talk to myself, telling myself the same story I have already told so many times, but it helped explaining things somehow when I got in this state, when I was blown up, all my veins and arteries moved from the inside where they belong to the outside so that as that army doc put it, I have been turned inside out in all respects." The terror and laughter, repulsion and excruciating pity all mirror the apocalypse of modem life in this quirky novel. Purdy handles this portentous material with consummate skill; by relentlessly maintaining the logic of the characters he has created, no matter how improbably, he forces the reader to enter a new dimension. The effect of the book is shattering. In a Shallow Grave belongs in every public library in this country. City Lights is to be commended for its publication. -- From Independent Publisher

Product Details

• Paperback: 140 pages
• Publisher: City Lights Publishers (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0872862348
• ISBN-13: 978-0872862340
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #372,627 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars TWO STEPS PAST THE TWILIGHT ZONE, March 4, 2002

By 

Sesho "www.sesho.libsyn.com" (Pasadena, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In a Shallow Grave (Paperback)

James Purdy is the best kept secret of American literature. Most people I know have never even heard of him. After reading two of his works I have come to the understanding that he is very special and unique. There is something vaguely Russian about him, I mean in the depth of his work that reminds me of Dostoyevsky or Tolstoy. To me, much as the Beatles cranked out classic song after song lasting rougly 2 minutes, so Purdy puts out short books that nevertheless contain all the power of a 600 page epic poem.

IN A SHALLOW GRAVE is the story of Garnet Montrose, a WWII vet who was horribly disfigured in an explosion while serving as a soldier. Most of his friends were killed so he suffers the usual guilt complex over why he survived and others did not. His ugliness alienates him to such an extent that he is hardly able to find a nurse to help him with his medical concerns at his home. It's a pretty horrible comment on society that noone wants to look him in the face. Even those that act like they can handle it seem to lose their nerve and run away. It really reminded me a lot of Frankenstein of all things. Here again is the plot of the deformed man with a heart of gold searching for a friend to open his heart to.

At this point we are introduced to Quintus Pearch, a young black boy whose mother is dying but still feels some bond with Garnet. You almost feel as though it's some weird form of vestigial slavery that calls to him and makes him stay with Garnet.

The primary duty of all his hired boys is to deliver letters from Garnet to Widow Rance, a childhood sweetheart. He writes her letter after letter filled with love but never has the nerve to call on her in person. He feels too ashamed of his looks.

Enter the character of Daventry, a fugitive from the law seeking a place to rest. He is hired and the rest of the book is mostly about the relationship between the three men. We come to find there are all kinds of love, both carnal and godly. That's what I found so amazing about the book. There is a lot of spirituality lurking under the surface of it.

Purdy writes his books in such a way that it seems like a story told you in your dreams. At times this novel seems surreal, at others transcendant, and sometimes realistic. Purdy's grasp of dialogue is one of the best I have ever read. Read a book by Purdy. You won't regret it.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In a Shallow Grave, July 28, 2000

By 

Christopher M Tracey (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In a Shallow Grave (Paperback)

Darkly beautiful, inventive, compelling, deeply moving and mesmerizing on so many levels. James is more than an artist of the word, he is an emancipator of the human heart. I honestly have not been so moved by a book for a very long time. I'm still thinking about "shallow grave" weeks after reading it.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books I've ever read, July 22, 2000

By 

"stephanecourby" - See all my reviews

This review is from: In a Shallow Grave (Paperback)

A strange novel with a special atmosphere : a young man comes back from the Pacific War, huggly face-wounded, and tries to survive lonely in his familial farm on the East Cost, nearby the ocean and its murmur, with his ancient love for a young widow. The most interesting is his ambiguous relations to the boys who enter to his service for little farm works.