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Tim O’Brien can write. His sentence and dialogue and paragraph flow masterfully–he’s a quick read–there’s no Faulkner chewing of paragraphs required to digest. He’s been recognized through numerous awards such as the National Book Award for fiction and France’s foreign book award as well as the James Finnemore Cooper Brooks award. I recall reading his seminal Vietnam short story collection “The Things They Carried” in high school and being awestruck that someone could write so well.
But after every book I read, I consider the fundamental readers’ question in life: would I recommend it. Or, more precisely, for whom would I recommend it?
So do I recommend Tomcat in Love or its philosophical sequel/Trump takedown America Fantastica? Well, after I finished Tomcat and jotted down some key quotes from it that captured some superb writing, I tossed it in the trash. It had previously sat on my bookshelf for the last decade unread. Aside from great technical writing there was little of redeeming value in its pages. It’s billed as laugh out loud funny, and it is humorous satire, but the overall narrative describes a sad, disturbed, self-absorbed, unrepentant man’s life. A man who is unable to holster his own desires, both mental, and otherwise–as the novel wears on, it becomes apparent that the central character is clinically sick. It’s hard to read a novel where there’s no one to cheer for. I was reminded of Anne Lamott’s advice in her incredible book Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life in which she quotes author Ethan Canin’s seminal advice: “Nothing is as important as a likable narrator. Nothing holds a story together better.” Note to reader: I had no idea who Ethan Canin was prior to reading Bird by Bird. Another author to add to the list–a quick research tells me I should start with A Doubter’s Almanac.
In America Fantastica O’Brien widens his scope and tackles a host of characters–all seemingly without a moral compass. I suppose he means for the story and the characters to symbolize America’s wider moral decay under Trump’s first term, along with his mythomania take on the concurrent rise of fake news and that symbology largely works. But with characters that are largely unlikable, it’s hard to recommend the book. The story was eminently readable–great pacing, and dialogue, and movement–but halfway through I found myself just wanting to get it over with. If you are looking for high brow left-leaning satire though, this book may be just what you are looking for.
Key Tomcat Quotes:
Page 18
Does language contain history the way plywood contains a flight“ as we bruised each day of our lives by solo collisions or spirit slashed by combinations of vowel and consonant at a cocktail party say or at a ball game or at your daughter‘s wedding would you feel death slide between your ribs if someone were to utter the name of your ex-husband? Can a color cause bad dreams? Can a cornfield make you cry? Do we radiate language by the lies we lead?… Can a word stop your heart as surely as arsenic?”
Page 158
“each of us I firmly believe is propelled to life by a restless inexhaustible need for affection. What else do we charge off to work every morning or withhold farts or decorate our bodies with precious gems or attention, church or smile at strangers or pluck out body here send valentines or glanced to mirrors or forgive or try to forgive or national her teeth at betrayal or prayer, promise or any of 1 trillion large and small behaviors that constitute the totality of the human trial on this planet, all for love all to be loved”
Then we finally discover this weird ledger thing that the narrator has and this is where you really start to not like despise feel loathsome toward the main character, which we can the novel by not having a likable main character. The only thing that keeps you in it is the idea of that he seems mentally ill this ledger list of not necessarily women who slept with because that is only four but women that he’s flirted with or kissed all organized by various metrics.
169
His love interest Mrs. Cushaw finally discovers his ledger and reads it “privates not the word I mean listen to this handholding’s 421 nuzzling 233 valentines 98 marriages one meaningful cases 1788… The whole thing, Thomas it’s revolting”
Page 174
He uses his flirtations as “innocent dolls” this is part of the problem
181
Here’s Thomas' central thesis: "The trick with women I have learned is to keep upping the ante, lose a hand, double the stakes, lose another, double to infinity like any gambling junkie. The female animal wants it all along dash your first strings, your heart, your spirit, the very breath of your lungs“
