Telegraph Avenue

So, here we are, on to sections 3 and 4 of Michael Chabon's Telegraph Avenue. As I mentioned last week, I'd been having mixed feelings as I moved forward into the book, especially with the Obama cameo.

So it did nothing to assuage my concerns when I dug into section 3, which is the shortest section of the book, only 12 pages. And only 1 sentence.

A 12-page sentence.

When I finished reading it, I sat back and thought long and hard about why Chabon might have chosen to do that. I thought about the PowerPoint chapter in Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad. I know that was a polarizing chapter, but I fell into the camp of those who loved it. I could completely believe in a teen girl using that program to tell her story, experimenting with it, and I found it very moving.

Then I thought about Virginia Woolf's beautiful To the Lighthouse, with its short center section, Time Passes, which acts as a bridge between two distinctly different periods of time in the life of the Ramsay family (and includes a major plot development). Woolf carries it off most beautifully.

So, then, how can I interpret Chabon's 12-page sentence? Is it supposed to be a take on jazz, which is an underlying concept in the book? Is it supposed to serve like Woolf's transition, using the bird Fifty-Eight as a way to fly us through certain plot points? Is it supposed to be like Egan, using a unique form of storytelling to create a different point of view?

Sadly, in the end, I came to the conclusion that the reason Chabon did this 12-page sentence was: because he could. And that's not a good enough reason to do that in a book.

I'm guessing that this book is going to be one of those polarizing novels that everyone talks about and has an opinion on, like Jonathan Franzen's Freedom. I'm still not to the end of the book, but the 12-page sentence caused something to snap inside me, and I am just. Not. Excited.

Section 4 returned to the previous form of storytelling, and after a while the near-constant use of metaphors and similes, and the bouncing back and forth between various characters, some of whom I care about and others I don't, is wearing me down. I'm enjoying watching Archy prepare for Cochise's funeral; I found Aviva's commitment to her chosen profession of midwife to be movingly heartfelt; I worry about Gwen's impetuousness and her marriage to Archy. I wish we saw more of Nat and Aviva. And the subplot with Archy's father, Luther, is beginning to feel like a red herring to me.

I guess the bottom line is, if I hadn't committed to reading the whole book, I'd probably have quit by now. But the final section is short, so I'll find out if there's something in those last 80 pages that will redeem the book for me.

 

Comments

[Laurie @ What She Read]

Oh, blogista, you are reading my mind. Every concern you voice has occurred to me as well, and I too pondered Woolf (and Joyce and Proust, and Morrison in Jazz) after chapter three. But here's the curious part: I've actually grown to enjoy this novel despite my reservations. Who knows why the balance tipped one way for you thus far and another for me? One of the blessings of this read-along has been to remind me of the extraordinarily complex diversity of readers' responses. Thanks for your candor and insight.

[Emily Crowe]

Oh, no! So sorry that it;s just not clicking for you this time around. The same section that drove you nuts, I read through two and a half times because I loved it so much--those twelve pages of one sentence I thought workeed beautifully.

[Lindsey]

I agree - I wish we saw more of Nat and Aviva too. I've started reading the final section and feeling like I hardly know Nat at all.

[cbjames]

As I remember William Faulkner also wrote sentences that went on for pages. Whoever is doing it, it's a device that going to lose readers one way or another. I wonder how carefully the authors who do this weigh the decision.

[Kerry M]

I wish we had more Nat and Aviva too. I didn't mind the long sentence - in fact, I kind of liked it. With so many character threads going on, I thought it was an interesting way to step back and revisit them all, see their current situations, recap where everyone is. Since I had such a hard time keeping track of the characters at the outset, I liked the temporary pause to catch our collective breaths.

[Belle]

Oooh, a red herring. I pulled Luther out as the trigger to the rise in the action that will involve those two boys one way or another.

[Amy Rea]

Belle, I can totally see Luther as the trigger for the boys. But I wish there was no long ago murder subplot and current day bribery to go with it. Luther alone is plenty.