A friend of mine--very smart friend--bought all four Garrett novels and he has been reading them one at a time. i was very interested in his reaction to Harangue, a book that astounded me also:
I read the whole thing yesterday, while recuperating (still, dammit) from this laryngitis. I had planned to read “The Driver” first, but I had left it in my apt..
So of the three I’ve read thus far, I think “Harangue” is by far Garrett’s best. By far! The “precious mob” off Washington Square park is just fantastic; it reminds me of not a few characters I knew in college. The descriptions of the wind catch you from the first page and don’t let go. Do you think Grinling, the Harvard-educated poet who wants to disown the U.S., is modeled on T.S. Eliot? I can’t help thinking he must be. Sort of an Ayn Randian figure in Jael, whom one really comes to like as soon as the circumstances surrounding her father are explained.
I love the image of the bank that won’t fail, on which it’s impossible to have a run. Makes me think of the Citicorp hq on Lex, or any of the other sovereign-wealth-infused funds in town. The people secretly *want* them to fail, and thereby forgive their debt!
And that last line! “Fitzjerald is the sort of man who doesn’t know what a woman means when she says yes.” Fantastic!
“Cinder Buggy” still has the best potential has a chamber opera, methinks, but this is the best literary effort of the lot. It should be promoted far and wide; I’m going to buy a bunch of copies for friends as birthday presents.
