Look Homeward, Angel
Thomas Wolfe
1929
Around 540 pages
You can tell that Thomas Wolfe has a flair for drama simply by the title of this novel. But I was sold by his author's note, which includes this banger: "Fiction is not fact, but fiction is fact selected and understood, fiction is fact arranged and charged with purpose." The writing is powerful, but it's about as sickeningly racist as you would expect from a 1929 novel.
Oliver and Eliza Gant have a marriage that would make Thomas Hardy proud. Oliver is an abusive alcoholic and Eliza is the long suffering baby making machine. The story follows the life of their son Eugene, who is clearly a stand in for Wolfe. Eugene is a sensitive young man, who is desperate to escape his life without entirely knowing what he is escaping to.
Obviously, a 1929 novel is going to feeling old-fashioned, but this felt like something that would have popped up during the pre War era, like something Zola or Balzac would come up with. I thought it was too sprawling and could have been delivered in a neater, shorter package.
This our last novel from the 1920s! Share your favorite in the comments section!
RATING: ***--
Interesting Facts:
Altamont is the fictionalization of the town of Asheville.
The novel was written over 20 months.
UP NEXT: The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
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