Another interview with Marguerite Young, from one of the Review of Contemporary Fiction issues about her. This one’s by Ellen G. Friedman and Miriam Fuchs from 1988:
I: If you believe that your writing is traditional, why does Miss MacIntosh, My Darling have no beginning, middle or end?
MY: Because life has no beginning, middle or end.
Why do I have the feeling this book, this writer, is going to bowl us over?
ReplyDeleteThe book could go on to be about making bread and then toasting it and then staring at it and the book's beginning would still be a fine beginning. The writing to me is clearly traditional even if the author goes on to use it for untraditional ends (perhaps to show that it's ok that life has no beginning, middle, or end). (Everything I say today is based on my reading of the first four pages.)
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of "no ending," if I could have figured out why The Scorpions ended when it did I may have written a review long ago -- that's not a knock, either, but it makes me wonder if Young is going to really "end" the book a la Proust or just trail off. I do like fireworks. (It's now 6:13 AM and still no sleep.)
Huh, just reading Robert Kelly's fiction - haven't gotten to The Scorpions yet, but in the afterword to A Transparent Tree, he mentions a sequel in the works to that book. On my list.
ReplyDeleteOh, so here's where the secret Scorpions book club is! (Will, I was just e-mailing Dan about it.)
ReplyDeleteThe "no ending" of The Scorpions—a kind of escape from the relentlessness of the narrative voice—? Prefigured by that book he reads in the john...(I'm grasping here, but.)