Will 'Genius' bring new readers to the novels of Thomas Wolfe?
The vagaries of literary fashion are hard to anticipate, but here鈥檚 a prediction for the summer reading season that鈥檚 probably a safe bet: Although he鈥檚 dramatized in a new motion picture, there won鈥檛 be a stampede of more readers for Thomas Wolfe.
Wolfe (1900-1938) figures largely in 鈥淕enius,鈥� a recent summer release starring Colin Firth as the legendary book editor Maxwell Perkins. Jude Law plays Wolfe, whose 1929 novel, 鈥淟ook Homeward, Angel,鈥� Perkins guided to print.
These days, the story of that book鈥檚 publication is better known than the book itself, a natural consequence of Wolfe鈥檚 peculiar literary sensibility. Wolfe was a prolix writer, and Perkins struggled heroically to pare down the North Carolina author鈥檚 fillibuster prose. Read 鈥淟ook Homeward, Angel鈥� today, and you can be forgiven for concluding that poor Perkins didn鈥檛 cut out enough. It鈥檚 a long-winded thing, not a leading candidate for the summer beach bag.
When a friend of Wolfe鈥檚 suggested to Perkins that 鈥淟ook Homeward, Angel鈥� might have some promise, he agreed to give it a look, though the project was offered with an unusual disclaimer; someone would have to come with a truck to collect it. The text was so thick that it couldn鈥檛 easily be delivered otherwise.
鈥淭his new manuscript of hundreds upon hundreds of pages was easy to ignore in favor of smaller proposals and first drafts of books that crossed his desk every week,鈥� biographer A. Scott Berg writes of Perkins. Even so, Perkins accepted the challenge, whittling the novel to something that a reader could lift to his lap without herniating his spine.
The result is the more-than-500 page story of the young Eugene Gant鈥檚 coming of age in the fictional mountain town of Altamount near the dawn of the 20th century. It鈥檚 largely autobiographical, based on Wolfe鈥檚 own youth in Asheville, North Carolina.
The novel so closely paralleled Asheville鈥檚 real-life residents, often portraying them as narrow-minded and provincial, that 鈥淟ook Homeward, Angel鈥� was banned from the Asheville public library. Wolfe famously fictionalized his estrangement from Asheville in a subsequent novel, 鈥淵ou Can鈥檛 Go Home Again.鈥�
Asheville long ago made its peace with Wolfe. His childhood home is open for tours, which is where, some years ago, I bought a copy of 鈥淟ook Homeward, Angel鈥� in the gift shop.聽聽聽聽
The book remains in print, a testament to Wolfe鈥檚 committed following. Charles Frazier, the acclaimed author of 鈥淐old Mountain,鈥� praised 鈥淟ook Homeward, Angel鈥� for language 鈥渁s rich and ambitious and intensely American as any of our novelists has ever accomplished."聽聽
聽Suffice it to say that Wolfe鈥檚 expansive 鈥� some would say indulgent 鈥� style is an acquired taste. It opens with a lengthy account of the Gant family lineage, rendered in biblical tones. No turn of plot seems to escape Wolfe鈥檚 penchant for elaboration. There鈥檚 a three-page description of the Gant family diet, a level of detail that seems digressive even for a food-centric Southern family. I still remember the exhaustion I felt in coming to the last page of 鈥淟ook Homeward, Angel,鈥� reaching the summit of a literary mountain I鈥檒l probably not climb again.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know yet what I鈥檓 capable of doing,鈥� Wolfe wrote when he was 23, 鈥渂ut by God, I have genius 鈥� I know it too well to blush behind it.鈥� His signature novel, audacious and overblown, can make one wish that he鈥檇 had a little more literary modesty.
