FROLIC OF HIS OWN

Rating:
Summary: Legal Tender
Review: I read Frolic after JR and The Recognitions of which I was more impressed than Frolic. It's amusing to watch Gaddis skewer the legal profession -- I can think of few professions more worthy of it -- but while he addresses the national feeding frenzy of greed associated with litigation his characters fail to capture much empathy as they were more hideous in many cases than their legal representatives. Consequently, I found myself detached from main characters and unsymapthetic to their sordid fates. In JR and The Recognitions I found characters whose destinies in the story lines mattered to me -- not so in Frolic. Gaddis has his finger on the pulse of a national disgrace in the need for tort reform but, since the reformers are self-regulating lawyers, it isn't likely to happen anytime soon. This novel is very finely written with powerful, pithy observations expressed in breathtaking jabs and poetic riffs. Frolic isn't as densely packed with intellect as JR or The Recognitions but is more accessible than either as his style is more accommodating in Frolic. This novel is just shy of great compared to the high standards set by his other works, which are among the best brace of American novels of the late 20th century. The great novels of Gaddis are destined to be discovered by wider readerships, to radiate brilliantly on America's literary landscape and to endure.

Rating:
Summary: The Style is The Substance
Review: Some of the previous reviews have defended the substance of 'Frolic' but bemoaned the unique and initially difficult style of the book. I actually think that Gaddis' style in general is not a postmodernist trick but a sincere effort to achieve his goal, which is to understand how people really speak and what it's like to try to communicate with people whose thoughts and words dart off into tangents and who constantly try to steer dialogue back to their own chosen subjects.

In this case the anarchic style works even better because not only does Oscar live in a world of random, abmbient noise from other people's mouths, he is also immersed in a world of litigation and the constant confusion about which lawsuit is being addressed from one moment to the next is a key element in Gaddis' satire of a litigious society out of control.

I do agree that the novel is probably a better read for attorneys. I am not an attorney but many members of my family are and I have enough experience reading legal briefs and deposition transcripts to get a lot out of the legal in-jokes. Because ultimately one of the triumphs of the book is to skewer the legal profession in its own language. And that language is hilarious whether it is in the hands of skilled lawyers using it to manipulate a situation or the book's other characters, who are forced to come to grips with a language they find so inaccessible.

As for the style, I can only urge first-time Gaddis readers to stick with it. It shouldn't take more than 30 or 40 pages to master his unique style and then you are on your way.

Rating:
Summary: Whole-Brain Reading
Review: This book, like Gaddis' other masterpiece, JR, made me repeatedly laugh out loud. While Gaddis is brilliant and innovative, the really important thing is that his best novels -- of which this is one -- are great fun to read. As for the reviewers who complain "why doesn't he use quotation marks?"; the answer is because the book wouldn't be nearly as enjoyable. Enjoying Gaddis comes from going with the frenetic flow of his rhythms. The reviewer who finds it "annoying" that characters keep interrupting each other is, with all due respect, missing the point. What's brilliant, and fun, about Gaddis, is the way the cumulative effect of those interruptions mirrors the sensation of certain real-life conversations. If you read a transcription of a spirited debate at a family dinner, or a tense business meeting, or whatever, you won't find many complete sentences. What you'll find is a collection of false starts, interruptions, and apparent non-sequiturs that resemble Gaddis' prose. In my experience, Gaddis's books are the type to which you need to surrender your consciousness and detachment to really enjoy them. To a certain extent, we've all been taught that to be truly intelligent or sophisticated readers, we need to hold part of our mind back to remain "critical" and to analyze the author's technique, and our own reactions, as we read. But if you read Gaddis while carefully searching for his "tricks" or "methods" and trying to discern the key to his authorial voice, you're doing yourself a disservice. It's all about immersion. If you just go with the flow, I don't think it's nearly as "difficult" as many people suggest, and it's as rewarding as reading can be.