Saul and Patsy : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Over-Rated
Review: I've read several of Charles Baxter's novels in the last few years, Saul and Patsy most recently, and I think Baxter is vastly over-rated. For a "writer's writer," he is pretty clumsy, and has the beginner's weaknesses. The very first sentence is a clunker. Take a look at the adjective there and see if it doesn't stick out like an inexplicably sore thumb. It would take a paragraph to fully explain how and why it's wrong, but it's something an experienced reader can probably hear at once.

He does a lot of telling rather than showing. For example, he has Saul stating again and again how much he loves Patsy, but we never see why Saul should (maybe this novel wasn't really meant to be read alone). Baxter doesn't show us a loving relationship; he just gives us Saul's earnest proclamations.

Saul is a self-important lightweight. Early in the book he makes a passionate speech about politics, then never mentions any interest again. There is a literary allusion Saul shares with Nancy, also early in the book, to a poem by Robert Creeley (a poet favored more by alternative than mainstream poets), but I don't think either of them either reads, or mentions a book, for the rest of the novel. The allusion seems to exist solely for Baxter to signal that he and his characters are hip. But in fact Baxter is very square.

Perhaps he is so popular because he affirms the middle-class view of the world so charmingly. On rare occasions one might rant about politics, but it won't have a real place in one's life. One might wish to help others less fortunate, but one will get over this when faced with the ugly faces and tasteless homes of actual less fortunate human beings. As young people the characters may have quoted poetry, but by now literature is merely part of a stereotypical attitude toward being young.

I find it offensive when Baxter cannot stop lavishing fascinated description on the repulsive ugliness of a particular "low-life" woman's face; Baxter also enumerates her tasteless home furnishings -- that we may nod in agreement, our prejudices confirmed? Saul thinks he's a real hero for allowing a kid to stand in his yard, a kid he knocks off his bike and physically threatens. Toward the end he becomes really delusional in his self-congratulations, believing he is single-handedly going to save the young people of the town, when he's shown less than average empathy or understanding. Patsy has her own moment of class condescension in a conversation with a young married woman of "the lower classes," whose marriage Saul has sometimes envied. Patsy quietly, and smugly, takes in that the girl is naive, a victim rather than a lucky woman, as the poor inferior girl imagines.

Baxter seems to have believed far too much in the uncritical praise he's received. Doesn't he know that some of his popularity is based on his affirmation of a certain section of the middle class and its values, not only on his talent as a fiction writer? Does he know that never makes any reader of this class uncomfortable? Yes, he is skilled in creating a fictional world out of often subtle perceptions and physical details. The surface of the fiction enjoyed by the reader is something Baxter excels in. But when all is said and done, the considerable skill seems devoted to rather lame ends. Baxter has been so successful, I think, because he has compromised his art. Nowadays, of course, it is only foolish idealists or losers who do not compromise. Also nowadays, compromised art, if it is literate and fulfills our class expectations, earns rave reviews for its quality.

Rating:
Summary: Over-Rated
Review: I've read several of Charles Baxter's novels in the last few years, Saul and Patsy most recently, and I think Baxter is vastly over-rated. For a "writer's writer," he is pretty clumsy, and has the beginner's weaknesses. The very first sentence is a clunker. Take a look at the adjective there and see if it doesn't stick out like an inexplicably sore thumb. It would take a paragraph to fully explain how and why it's wrong, but it's something an experienced reader can probably hear at once.

He does a lot of telling rather than showing. For example, he has Saul stating again and again how much he loves Patsy, but we never see why Saul should (maybe this novel wasn't really meant to be read alone). Baxter doesn't show us a loving relationship; he just gives us Saul's earnest proclamations.

Saul is a self-important lightweight. Early in the book he makes a passionate speech about politics, then never mentions any interest again. There is a literary allusion Saul shares with Nancy, also early in the book, to a poem by Robert Creeley (a poet favored more by alternative than mainstream poets), but I don't think either of them either reads, or mentions a book, for the rest of the novel. The allusion seems to exist solely for Baxter to signal that he and his characters are hip. But in fact Baxter is very square.

Perhaps he is so popular because he affirms the middle-class view of the world so charmingly. On rare occasions one might rant about politics, but it won't have a real place in one's life. One might wish to help others less fortunate, but one will get over this when faced with the ugly faces and tasteless homes of actual less fortunate human beings. As young people the characters may have quoted poetry, but by now literature is merely part of a stereotypical attitude toward being young.

I find it offensive when Baxter cannot stop lavishing fascinated description on the repulsive ugliness of a particular "low-life" woman's face; Baxter also enumerates her tasteless home furnishings -- that we may nod in agreement, our prejudices confirmed? Saul thinks he's a real hero for allowing a kid to stand in his yard, a kid he knocks off his bike and physically threatens. Toward the end he becomes really delusional in his self-congratulations, believing he is single-handedly going to save the young people of the town, when he's shown less than average empathy or understanding. Patsy has her own moment of class condescension in a conversation with a young married woman of "the lower classes," whose marriage Saul has sometimes envied. Patsy quietly, and smugly, takes in that the girl is naive, a victim rather than a lucky woman, as the poor inferior girl imagines.

Baxter seems to have believed far too much in the uncritical praise he's received. Doesn't he know that some of his popularity is based on his affirmation of a certain section of the middle class and its values, not only on his talent as a fiction writer? Does he know that never makes any reader of this class uncomfortable? Yes, he is skilled in creating a fictional world out of often subtle perceptions and physical details. The surface of the fiction enjoyed by the reader is something Baxter excels in. But when all is said and done, the considerable skill seems devoted to rather lame ends. Baxter has been so successful, I think, because he has compromised his art. Nowadays, of course, it is only foolish idealists or losers who do not compromise. Also nowadays, compromised art, if it is literate and fulfills our class expectations, earns rave reviews for its quality.

Rating:
Summary: Not Baxter's Best...But Enjoyable Nonetheless
Review: It's hard for me to find flaw with Baxter's style. His ear for humor and dialogue--especially the familiar patterns between characters in long term relationships--is impeccable. I suppose I just didn't find this particular story as compelling as others. Elements of the plot and development of characters were a bit frustrating: Why did Saul and Patsy remain so passive after being repeatedly targeted? Also, Saul's actions and general demeanor makes him seem more like a middle aged man than someone in his early thirties. On the whole, I enjoyed the novel and will pass it along.

Rating:
Summary: ¿The great pageant of life here in the Midwest.¿
Review: Saul and Patsy is an interesting story and a sharp and intuitive look at love, parenthood and marriage in Middle America. You can read the novel as a harsh indictment of the vacuity of modern life or also as a rather grand and eloquent account of a relationship in various stages of crisis and salvation. Gloominess and pessimism is established at the outset, so is there hope for these characters? Judging by the end of the story, there probably is, although it's not the sort of hope that one would expect. Saul and Patsy as newlyweds, living in the Midwest, together with a small child, are forced to question their values when a young local schoolboy, Gordy Himmelmam, enters their lives, and carries out an act of suicide that sends a terrible emotional ferocity through their lives.

Saul is constantly disappointed with the world after having moved to the town of Five Oaks and resents having to "mingle with the Cossacks." He feels his disappointment beginning to fester, when he thinks that his life in the Midwest is presenting itself as both bland and coarse. His relationship with Patsy provides his solace, and he is the first to admit that they have an "oddball marriage" and they know it. Their love for each other has created " a magic circle around themselves that outsiders cannot penetrate." The secondary characters flesh out the narrative and provide an emotional juxtaposition to Saul and Patsy. There's Delia, Saul's self obsessed and "city wise" mother who after years spent in an unremarkable marriage - a marriage that was a practical economic arrangement - commences having an affair with a young boy half her age. And there's Saul's high flying brother Howie, living on the West coast, making lots of money, but ultimately betraying his bother and sister-in-law with secrets and lies.

Baxter is a beautifully eloquent writer, and he effortlessly weaves the domestic, sexual and emotional lives of Saul and Patsy through the narrative. The strength is in the trivial - the "candied goo covering a toothbrush," the taming of sexual passion into a marriage ceremony, and the "kitchen windows rattling from the stage-managed wind." But the story seems to lose its focus at the end, as though Baxter is having trouble finding a conclusion, or an ultimate resolution to the crisis that presents itself to the two main protagonists. Nevertheless, Saul and Patsy is a charming and sincere read, and I'm looking forward to reading more of Baxter's work.

Michael

Rating:
Summary: Not disappointing.
Review: The number of reviewers who passionately disliked this book makes me wonder what they were expecting, or if they just weren't in the mood for this kind of book. "Saul and Patsy" is a very well-done novel that keeps your attention throughout, even though there's something a little, I don't know, uncomfortable about the couple's decision to relocate to a small town in rural Michigan. There's something a little off-putting about these two and their choices that is hard to put your finger on.

"Saul and Patsy" does have the sense of having been worked up from short stories, notably because characters who have already been introduced get the full intro treatment several times, as if this were the first time you were meeting them. Besides this small annoyance, it is hard to pick out where the stories were knitted into the larger novel.

I looked forward to "Saul and Patsy," which, after all, is what reading a good book should be all about.

Rating:
Summary: Not disappointing.
Review: The number of reviewers who passionately disliked this book makes me wonder what they were expecting, or if they just weren't in the mood for this kind of book. "Saul and Patsy" is a very well-done novel that keeps your attention throughout, even though there's something a little, I don't know, uncomfortable about the couple's decision to relocate to a small town in rural Michigan. There's something a little off-putting about these two and their choices that is hard to put your finger on.

"Saul and Patsy" does have the sense of having been worked up from short stories, notably because characters who have already been introduced get the full intro treatment several times, as if this were the first time you were meeting them. Besides this small annoyance, it is hard to pick out where the stories were knitted into the larger novel.

I looked forward to "Saul and Patsy," which, after all, is what reading a good book should be all about.

Rating:
Summary: Better than The Lovely Bones
Review: The professional reviews do a good job with the critique of this novel. Since this is my first Charles Baxter, I just wanted to give it the 5 stars that it deserves. The writing is impeccable as we observe Saul mature from a sentimental Jewish man who doesn't quite understand his place in this bumpy world to a man able to take action as he ultimately finds his place in it.

Rating:
Summary: Astonishing and beautiful
Review: This book is so extraordinary -- I am a fan of Charles Baxter's and was waiting for it, but had no idea what a massive, exciting, heartrending, and gripping story it would be. This is much more than a family story, or a love story, or a beautiful, complex portrait of a marriage, though it's all those things. It's the story of our time and our embattled world. It's an examination, via the lives of a few small-town characters, of a world where terrorism and the spirits of mischief run wild. Love and destructiveness, the desire for happiness and the desire to do damage, the longing for the perfect lives we imagine others to have, and the harm we are willing to do them because of these imaginings...it's all in here.

The characters are so human, the observations about them so wonderfully written and so full of depth and surprises. This novel is a masterpiece, a permanent work of literature. It makes demands on you, but is incredibly gripping. It also has a brilliant, inventive structure that reinforces the themes and events of the book. I was up very late with it, and finished it with such happiness that I had to tell someone (you, whoever you are, who are reading this!) I'm writing this because I long to discuss it with someone, but don't want to give away any of the intricate turns of plot and the great connections.

Oh, lucky readers who get to experience this for the first time, lovers of great fiction, do yourself a favor and read this book!

Rating:
Summary: In like a puddytat...out like a lambypie
Review: What a promising start and what a disappointing payoff. Some of Saul Bernstein's reactions and observations about the Midwest, and Patsy's long-suffering reactions, are truly hilarious. If you love to recall the scene in Annie Hall where Alvie Singer worries incessantly about the possible anti-Semitic overtones of the phrase, "Did you eat?" you'll love this stuff. But the plot does not hold one's interest...especially after a denoument that lacks much punch and an ending that might leave you gratified about the hero's character development, but ultimately unimpressed with the role he takes on in his chosen community. Those who have said that this novel reads like the collection of short stories from which it sprang, and not like a complete work of literature in and of its self seem to be right on the money.

Rating:
Summary: A big yawn...
Review: Yes, I agree with the other reviewers that Baxter displays a keen sense of language and there are occasional light touches that made me snicker. However, the problem for me is that I don't give a hoot for Saul and this feeling remains unchanged by the end of the book. When I turned the last page, I was just glad to be done with a boring book.