Glenway Wescott (1901–1987)

Very nicely done, the sort of thing that'll appeal to people involved in crafting something, while also causing them/we to feel a little ripped off. As even the introduction points out, making a hawk into a symbol isn't much of a novelty, nor is the Anglos-abroad (Wescott does make me want to read Henry James, which is a mark in his favor), nor is the ever so slightly farcical country-house plot.

So, to justify my own enjoyment of this, I'm forced to interpret the book thusly: the hawk is show more not, in fact, a symbol for anything, and the point of the novel is the narrator's failure to discover anything worthy to be symbolized by the 'symbol'. The hawk exceeds all of Alwyn Towers' life experiences, his thoughts, and his feelings; the hawk certainly exceeds the experiences, thoughts and feelings of its Irish keeper and her husband. Any romantic, idealizing, transcendentalist attitudes fail to capture the real danger and magnificence of the animal. In short, this is a short novel about the writer's failure to produce a work adequate to its subject--while, at the same time, it's a perfect little gem of a book. show less

Reading these remarkably beautiful and moving short stories, it becomes apparent why Wescott's subsequent career, successful as it was in some ways, was such a disappointment to himself and his friends, for surely, these are the stories of a writer of great promise. Those of us who live in the Midwest will also be reminded how very difficult life was even for our grandparent's generation. These stories of small town life in post-pioneer Wisconsin are told with bright, chiselled, even show more lapidary prose. Wescott's descriptions of nature are especially vivid and sensitive, often, as one might expect, tending to mirror the emotional states of the characters, almost all of whom are in some way cramped and stifled by the stultifying life they are forced to live. show less

Glenway Wescott was a good friend of Somerset Maugham's, and so I had hoped he might have come under his influence more than is suggested by this novel. Or, perhaps that's unfair; Maugham was a great teller of tales but sometimes he lacked the philosophical insight into his characters that might have propelled him into the first rate; Wescott's book is more devoted to the psychology of his characters than the lives they live.

'Apartment in Athens' is an interesting piece, following the life show more for a year of a family in Athens whose home is taken over by a German officer during the second world war. Their routines are shattered, they suffer the depravities of subservience, and in the end they are punished though they are innocent. The characters, and indeed the plot, work well as metaphors for the war and the warring nations, but one has to wonder if there is enough here for a novel. A novella, or a piece in a collection of short stories, might have been more suitable; as it is, there is not enough plot here to carry the book all the way.

My YouTube review is here: https://youtu.be/XCZyivmZ07k show less

Brief, elegant, edgy, and profound, I found myself enraptured by this little gem. I was quickly taken in by the narrator's voice, and while not much happens, there is an incredible tension in all this not-happening. A masterpiece of restrained narration.