Recent Reading: October Light

I would say that this novel is my favorite John Gardner book so far. It is a story of a brother and sister, Sally Page Abbott and James L. Page. The two are now older adults sharing a house together just outside Bennington, Vermont. The fight between the two includes a gun fired into a television, pooping out the windows of the house, as well as teeth violently knocked out. Cantankerous seems too weak a word to describe their relationship.

While all this drama is happening, Sally is reading an (invented) book called The Smugglers of Lost Souls Rock. A reviewer in the NYTimes described it as

a weird tale about a would‐be suicide a gang of philosophical marijuana smugglers who operate between San Francisco and Mexico. a rival gang of an Indian and two murderous but equally philosophical blacks, a creepy old paraplegic and his proud black cleaning woman, an orgy, an earthquake and a flying saucer.

The novel within the novel is missing some pages, so one never finishes this tale. However, I did find this invented tale fascinating and noted several references to the Iliad and Shakespeare. I am reminded of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose which is set in the middle ages but includes references to Wittgenstein and Borges.

If you think you might appreciate an admixture of realism, and experiment, then I recommend October Light.