Desperate Characters by Paula Fox
It's difficult to remember, forty years on, New York in the seventies, The City was facing bankruptcy, the streets were dangerous, frequent strikes left unattended garbage for the rodents, buildings crumbled. It was dirty, smelly, falling apart. Paula Fox's novel Desperate Characters perfectly captures that time along with the similarly disintegrating marriage of Sophie and Otto Bentwood.
The story begins with an unexpected cat bite. "Because it's savage," Otto answers Sophie's puzzled, "why?" It was a cat she was trying to feed that bit her. This well-intentioned act, this McGuffin, sends the couple off on a weekend odyssey, where ominous events continue to haunt the childless couple. They find little solace in each other and there is no easy resolution at the end. The quiet desperation that suffuses their story is heart-breaking.
The writing is haunting, lucid, and succinct.
Fox has also written two books about her life (Borrowed Finery and The Coldest Winter), a few other novels (The Widow's Children) and many children's books. But nothing is finer than this one for me.
11 comments:
Sounds interesting, Patti - thanks
I have a couple of Paula Fox books. I just need to find them...
Nice review!
IN that era, you could buy a brownstone in Park Slope, for example, for as little as $10,000. These are now worth multiple millions. But it was dangerous then. Jackie taught the children of "pioneers" (as they were called then) who moved into Boerum Hill in the early '70s, some of whom were robbed repeatedly in that period.
For those who don't know, there was a movie adaptation in 1971 that starred Shirley MacLaine and Kenneth Mars. It was produced and directed by Frank Gilroy, who co-wrote the screenplay with Fox.
I don't think I have ever seen it, Jeff. I wonder if it's available.
I saw it many years ago, but that is about all I remember.
The film is available on all the Regular Suspects for a few bucks extra for streaming.
Jocelyn0000 posted it in seven parts on YouTube seven years ago, but since YT wants to rent the whole thing to you for 3 bucks, they took down chunks of it and left others up as teasers for their own offer. She also has some other interesting stuff up.
https://www.youtube.com/user/jocelyn0000/search?query=desperate+characters for the surviving segments (in a good-looking upload).
Thanks, Todd.
Does anyone know what's happening with Margot Kinberg?
But Now It’s Time to Put This Book Away*
I’ve thought about this for a quite a while, and I’ve come to a decision. After almost ten years of blogging, it’s time for me to stop. And, no, in case you’re wondering, it’s not a health issue. I’ll be putting my focus and energy into some other things that need to be done, not the least of which is my own writing.
This post will stay up for a day or so, and then the blog will dis...[and that's the end of her last blogpost as quoted on her Goodreads page. A pity she decided to take the blog down altogether, after 3000+ posts...but it would be a Flying Dutchman of sorts, I guess.]
Margot Kinberg
3016 posts MARGOT KINBERG'S BLOG
Shame about Margo stopping. Her blog would have made a nice archive, I think. Darn.
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