Customer Reviews

The Sunlight Dialogues

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Sunlight Dialogues_ is truly John Gardner's magnum opus, equaling and perhaps overshadowing _Grendel_, the book for which he is best known.

Grossly over-simplified, it is about the tide of discontent and change that came about in the 1960s, exemplified in the stories of a handful of people who live in the small New York town of Batavia. All of these characters' stories occur at roughly the same moment, and to a certain degree overlap each other; they all come into contact with one another at some point during the novel, and may even influence each other, but every member of the book's huge cast has his or her own story and denouement.

The primary one of these stories is the one that concerns Police Chief Fred Clumly and a haggard, maniacal drifter known as "the Sunlight Man", and the happenings of this particular storyline are the catalysts for the rest of the stories. "The Sunlight Man", whom we later find out is Taggert Hodge, the black sheep of the wealthy and powerful family the members of whom comprise roughly half the other characters in the novel, is the one who sets all of these denouements into motion with his seminal return to his hometown as a magician, hippie, murderer, and poet. His has been a life of disillusionment, loss, betrayal and unattainable wants, and he returns to Batavia to set into motion a sort of romantically juvenile plot to take revenge on the world and to mewl out his disappointment with the way things are, the latter of which he does through Fred Clumly(thus is the origin of the title.)

Gardner is remarkably adept at character development; Taggert Hodge, Walter Benson and Fred Clumly are among the best painted characters of fiction I know of. The author has a gift for articulating neuroses and flaws of characters, from miniscule ticks in their everyday behavior to major personality faults. And with a cast of roughly eleven major characters, making each and every one entirely unique in their drives and hamartias is no task to be scoffed at. However, the ability of John Gardner's I perhaps envy the most is that of taking a very normal, even pretty environmental setting, and turning it nightmarish and haunting. In the novel, the dense forests and century-old barns of Batavia are made into artifacts and ruins of an almost Lovecraftian caliber of queerness, and yet it does not serve to displace the small New York town from the realm of believable reality, but rather forces you to evaluate your reality on the same dark and weird basis as his authorial voice.

The sheer scope of the novel (that of several stories cycloning around a unifying theme and plot catalyst) at times threatens to tear it apart, however; the reader at times is left wondering why the author has switched point of views when the scenario he was describing previously had yet to be resolved. This is a mere annoyance, however, and is not really something for which I believe the novel should be faulted, for the rewards of its pages are vast ones.

Due perhaps to its relatively young age, it has yet to receive the proper "classic" status it so rightly deserves, and, sadly, it may never, for "Grendel" seems to be John Gardner's only remembered and widely read work, and is perpetually overshadowing the rest of the author's material, most of which are just as powerful and memorable as tale of Beowulf's tragic nemesis. In fact, some may even be better, as I propose The Sunlight Dialogues is, but until the higher-ups at Norton and the like get around to looking at this master of fiction as a master should, I advise any and all of the people reading this to purchase this book from whatever obscure publisher it has currently been tossed to.

John Gardner wrote many good works, the Sunlight Dialogues being by far the best. In it he captures the range of hope and anxiety that made the 1960s such a thrilling and tormenting time to be alive. Using the small town of Batavia, New York, Gardner plunges the reader into the life of a prodigal son of the most prestigious family in town and that of the dedicated police chief. And do the intellectural sparks fly! The illustrations by John Napper are reminescent of those from the Yellow Book in the 1890s, by Aubrey Beardsley. There is a lot of subtle humor ("take a gun of, say, x caliber...") as well as dead-on observation of what makes people do outrageous things for perfectly logical reasons.
It's a roller coaster of a novel, so hang on and enjoy the ride. You might even want to go back for a second trip. I did.

Back in the 70s, I became fascinated with John Gardner, starting with The Wreckage of Agathon and Grendel. When The Sunlight Dialogues came out, I was hooked. I picked up a paperback copy and just fell into the story. After that, each new Gardner was purchased in hardcover, which I could ill afford back then.

About 10 years ago, I tracked down a fine condition copy of TSG and re-read it. Bad move, though, donating the paperback to the library.

I welcomed the arrival of a new trade paperback edition of the novel, and of one or two others by Gardner until I actually had the opportunity to hold them. The reprints were done without the original illustrations, which are integral to the books. Unbelievable!

For old times sake, I bought a used Ballantine paperback copy and am re-reading it. I have no intention of buying this new edition.

So, five stars for Gardner and the book, with a one-star demerit for this compromised reprint. The new introduction doesn't add much to the book.

What to say, what to say[slams head against desk]? Gardner's prose reaches its peak in the pages of this book. Haunting and beatuiful, the entire book reads like an epic poem. The conflict in the book is that between the philosphical sytems of the sunlight man and that of the (vastly less sophisticated) chief of police. The invisible assumptions commonly held about the nature of law, society, and morality are brought into the light of day and ruthlessly exmained. Anyone with a philosphical bent should be interetsed in the debate, and Gardner's style renders the confilct very readbable. Eventually, the sunlight man is shown to be the product of too much love for mankind and an uncompromising adherence to ideals in an imperfect world. The ending can only be described as tragic, so make sure youre plenty ready for a moody conclusion if you pick this book up...it is engaging enough that the huindreds of pages will take only a little while to plow through, and you WILL become sympathetic to the main characters of the book. One of Gardner's best works, on the same level as _Grendel_.

A man gets arrested after drawing a large anarchy sign on the highway and then burning his wallet, including his id and papers. Tells the cops to call him 'Sunlight' - and that is precisely what he offers the chief of police, sunlight. So damn much of it that the police chief slowly starts to slip into Sunlight's own game. Sunlight escapes but keeps coming back, as though he must, must, make the police chief understand that he is serving madness, not order.
Beautiful book

What to say, what to say[slams head against desk]? Gardner's prose reaches its peak in the pages of this book. Haunting and beatuiful, the entire book reads like an epic poem. The conflict in the book is that between the philosphical sytems of the sunlight man and that of the (vastly less sophisticated) chief of police. The invisible assumptions commonly held about the nature of law, society, and morality are brought into the light of day and ruthlessly exmained. Anyone with a philosphical bent should be interetsed in the debate, and Gardner's style renders the confilct very readbable. Eventually, the sunlight man is shown to be the product of too much love for mankind and an uncompromising adherence to ideals in an imperfect world. The ending can only be described as tragic, so make sure youre plenty ready for a moody conclusion if you pick this book up...it is engaging enough that the huindreds of pages will take only a little while to plow through, and you WILL become sympathetic to the main characters of the book. One of Gardner's best works, on the same level as _Grendel_.

This novel was the first I read by Gardner and it was an eye-opener. His philosophical insights into human motivation had me hooked. It was after this novel, I picked up Grendel. Wasn't sure what he was about, at first, but then after reading an essay on Grendel by Segedy, I got the point. Too bad Gardner isn't more popular, and what a shame he had an untimely death.

John Gardner writes very capably, yet cold. The best part are the dialogues between a "Law and Order" police chief who is fascinated with this anarchic madman. The book turns too literary for me at points (opposite of happy endings, bad things always happening) Lots of intriguing ideas. Gardner captures Batavia, NY (small town in Western New York farm countr.)

I recently met a recent graduate of the State University of New York: Binghamton, an English major. He had never heard of John Gardner, author of the one American post WWII novel that stands comparision in scope and quality, if not import, with Middlemarch.

Ordered this book for a book group discussion. Not only could I not finish it, I couldn't really start it. Overall the book group didn't like it either.