Harvey Swados (1920–1972)

Swados is not an untalented writer — his voice flows easily and isn't marred by too many missteps — though he's more than a little mid-century in tone and tenor. His biggest problems come in the stories themselves, which run the gamut of narrative clichés (naive small-town boy moves to the city to pursue his dream, gets taken in by smooth operators, and ends up committing suicide to escape!), chicken soup-esque glurge ("A Handful of Ball-Points, a Heart Full of Love"), and well-meaning show more but heavy-handed social critiques.

The best story in the volume is certainly the title novella, which raises a question: it's unarguably best to start out a collection of stories with the one with the best opening lines, which unarguably belongs to "Nights...". But, at the same time, where is the proper place to put the best story? Swados' editor chose the start of the volume, which lead to a decline in interest as I continued. Without something as magically alive and real as the opening story, it eventually felt like a chore to push through the clichés and heavy-handedness to reach the end.

I'd gladly own a reprint of just the title story, and perhaps also the last two [My Coney Island Uncle, and Tree of Life], but the entire collection can't begin to live up to its high standards. show less

Open Road Media has published The Will by Harvey Swados (As well as Going Away) as part of "The Essentials" - a selection of National Book Award finalists and winners currently being released as eBooks. Originally published in 1963, The Will is a character study of a dysfunctional family dealing with the death of the two family patriarchs in such rapid succession that a will has not been located. By all appearances there is a family fortune in a house full of collectibles (think Hoarders) show more and real estate, albeit in areas that would be defined as slums.

One brother, Ralph, is returning home for his father's funeral (although he skipped his uncles funeral, held just a week before). He wants to find the will, quickly settle the estate and leave. The only problem is his youngest brother is a recluse, living in the attic of the house, never venturing outside. The oldest brother, is in areas unknown, perhaps incarcerated. Problems abound when Ralph stays, and has his girlfriend come out to help. They marry and stay at the house, trying to go through the mountains of stuff looking for a will, while Ralph wants nothing more than to force Raymond out of the attic, get his inheritance and leave. Raymond, however, has his own ideas and wants any inheritance to be distributed equitably.

Swados was a part of the New York intellectuals and the writing is intelligent. The actual plot is slow moving since any development is established more by dialog than action and Swados has his characters propel his themes forward through dialog. Chapters are all told from the point of view of one of the characters. Savvy readers will catch the references to The Brothers Karamazov in The Will.

Harvey Swados is also remembered for his concern that the introduction of pocket-size books, paperbacks, would result in a “flood of trash” that threatened to “debase farther the popular taste."

Highly Recommended

Excerpt
www.scribd.com/doc/156021983/The-Will-by-Harvey-Swados-Excerpt

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Open Road Media via Netgalley for review purposes. show less

Liked this book when young (before 1974)