Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
Any other takes on this?
|
Not now!
I'm currently in the middle of "The Ox-Bow Incident" by Walter Van Tilburg Clark, but I'm also flailing a bit. I've always been a fan of the Western genre, and I understand that this was intended to be more of a statement on justice, human nature, and civilization in general rather than a traditional "Rope Opera". But considering the sheer volume of high praise for its
Transcendence, I've found it to be overly purple, muddy with far too many characters, too preachy, and pointlessly racist** at times. It's very short, so I don't think I'll have too much trouble finishing it, but it's going to have to work very hard to redeem itself from its lackluster start.
**Before anybody gets in a twist; I'm not suggesting the author was racist, or that the book needs to be vilified for its portrayal of "the times." I was just frankly uncomfortable reading what amounted to phonetically-spelled Amos and Andy skits pointlessly interspersed throughout the early parts of the otherwise competently written (if not loved) story. Tilburg may have been writing about 1885 society, but it was published in 1940. For all the talk of his mastery of the language, I would have expected far less ham-handed portrayals of the racism of "the times." But since the passages did nothing to advance the narrative, in my opinion, I would have much rather not encountered them at all.