I just finished THE PARIS WIFE and it just didn't work for me. Much like LOVING FRANK didn't work a few years ago. I feel very uneasy about a book centered on imagined conversations between real people.
I think I have talked about this before. I don't mind "real" people in the background such as with works by Doctorow, but when the entire work is about two "real" people and all their "real" friends, I am uneasy. Certainly the portraits of characters like Fitzgerald and Zelda are stereotypical in this book as is the one of Gertrude Stein. Maybe the Fitzgeralds were always drunk and Stein always judgmental and imperious, but geez.
The author is creating a voice for her protagonist and it may very well be inauthentic. Perhaps Ernest was not the shit this book made him out to be and perhaps Hadley was more interesting or even troublesome than this book painted her. You could feel the author paging through other books to find where the couple went next, who they met and what happened. It never felt organic the way a good novel should feel. It felt like research disguised as fiction.
I am sure there is a book like this that did it better. Have any such books worked for you?
23 comments:
Never. A much loved book that turned me off was Tobias Wolff's OLD SCHOOL. THe celebrities Robert Frost and Ayn Rand merely acted out the author's opinions of those writers.
It's more believable that Scooby and Shaggy met Don Knotts, Dick Van Dyke, The Globetrotters, Batman et. al...
I agree with your comments. It would be better if fictionalized characters were used as "based on the lives of ________"
Ann
Yes, that's a real problem. Making judgments about character and such.
Based on the lives of might work better indeed.
As clumsy as much of that sort of historical fiction is, I find the attempts in "nonfiction" to recreate internal monologue and non-recorded discussions, presented as verbatim transcripts, even more enervating.
In fiction, a sterling example of doing the job right is HAMMETT by Joe Gores. Howard Fast was often canny enough to use historical figures who had relatively little recorded about them...
Patti - Such an interesting question! I honestly prefer my historical fiction to be about fictional people. Like you, I don't mind if real people play roles in the story or move in an out of it. But very few historical novels work for me if the main characters are real people. I can really only think of one or two, actually; it's a tough thing to carry off.
Yep, that's annoying too, Todd.
I don´t think I have ever read a book of that kind. I think it is same kind of trap which many writers of true fiction fall into. They think having stumbled on an exciting story is enough, but it takes a proper writer as well - at least if I am the target group.
I like historical fiction and enjoyed HEMINGWAY CUTTHROAT by Michael Atkinson.
But it can be dicey writing for sure. It all comes down to the skill of the one pounding out the words.
I've always enjoyed Mary Renault's historical fiction. I'm about to take the plunge and order eight volumes of historical fiction by Harold Lamb from Bison Press.
I just looked him up. He's the king of historical fiction. What series?
Yes, I think it has to come to life more than this did. You can't just plug in events and people.
I prefer historical fiction in which fictional characters are front-and-center while the "real" people are in the background. If we know a tremendous amount about the actual person, fiction about them seems almost besides the point. What more could a fictional novel based on the lives of Hemingway, Stein, et. al. add to what we know of them.
Having said that, I must say that I thought Doctorow did a great job with the Collyer brothers (New York hoarders extraordinaire who died horrible deaths in their clutter-filled brownstone in the late 1940s) in his novel HOMER AND LANGLEY; although, based on everything I've read about the brothers, much of Doctorow's reimagining of their lives was indeed complete fiction.
You know, I have dreams in which famous people show up for a while, and I am completely convinced in the dream that they are real. Historical figures in fiction work the same way for me. What kills it, as you say Patti, is the "research" showing through.
I once wrote a play about a historical figure based on my own research, and an established playwright who read it said: "To make this kind of thing work you have to be less faithful to history and take more liberties." So: less research, more liberties.
Actually, Patti, while Lamb was hugely prolific, so was Howard Fast...and there are any number of others who could challenge both, though E. Hoffman Price is one of my favorites to publish a lot in the pulps alongside Lamb.
I guess I have to disagree. I really enjoyed The Paris Wife - the author really captured the characters...
James Ellroy does a lot of this, though the real people aren't primary characters. Sometimes ti works, sometimes it doesn't. I think it's something that must be handled with care, as there's something troubling about altering a person's legacy through fiction, for better or worse.
I've read and enjoyed the whole gamut of historical and biographical fiction, from intense dramatization of real persons and circumstances, to novels in which history and period are merely background. For me, it all depends on the powers of the novelist, and I can discern no evidence that one sort of novel is superior to another.
I think most people who read it will like it. But for me after reading about three Hemingway bios, it felt like I'd already read it. And I have a problem with imagined dialogue. I can't think of any book like this one I have ever really believed. So probably my problem.
Ron, I thought I was the only one that had dreams like that. They never hang around for long and what they say always seems like bad writing, but there they are.
And as Richard said, it needs a first-rate novelist. Or great dreamer to pull it off.
The Toby Peters books worked for me, and Bill Crider's book about Bogart.
Bill wrote a book about Bogart?
Gore Vidal seems able to pull it off -- but sometimes peters out. He comes up with long chunks of very believable detail.
A WALL STREET JOURNAL article lead me to Harold Lamb's historical fiction, Patti. You can check out the article at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204409904574350983611946784.html.
Bison Books have reprinted eight volumes of Lamb's historical fiction. I have them on order now.
HAMMETT is one that stands out, as Todd said. Yes, Bill's Bogart novel was a lot of fun - too bad it didn't become a series.
We'll Always Have Murder.
I've read a lot about Hemingway, mostly non fiction, and I'm guessing he really was a shit.
Jeff M.
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