She Treads Softly: The Will

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

The Will

The Will by Harvey Swados

Open Road Media; August 6, 2013
eBook; 593 KB (or 272 pages)
ASIN: B00DZEJTF0

Description:

Finalist for the National Book Award: On the verge of receiving a vast inheritance, three brothers’ clashing aspirations turn into an all-out war
Brothers Leo and Max Land came to America from Romania in 1911, but they took different paths in pursuit of the American dream. Even as they worked together, Max sought out material things while Leo made a simple, private life for himself. Now, after the death of both brothers, Leo’s three sons—the only surviving heirs—learn that they stand to inherit a fortune. As they battle for control, they come to expose their own deeply complicated visions of success in America. The Will is a stunning portrait of American idealism crushed under the weight of material desires.

My Thoughts:

Open Road Media has published The Will by Harvey Swados (As well as Going Away) as part of "The Essentials" - a selection of National Book Award finalists and winners currently being released as eBooks. Originally published in 1963, The Will is a character study of a dysfunctional family dealing with the death of the two family patriarchs in such rapid succession that a will has not been located. By all appearances there is a family fortune in a house full of collectibles (think Hoarders) and real estate, albeit in areas that would be defined as slums.

One brother, Ralph, is returning home for his father's funeral (although he skipped his uncles funeral, held just a week before). He wants to find the will, quickly settle the estate and leave. The only problem is his youngest brother is a recluse, living in the attic of the house, never venturing outside. The oldest brother, is in areas unknown, perhaps incarcerated. Problems abound when Ralph stays, and has his girlfriend come out to help. They marry and stay at the house, trying to go through the mountains of stuff looking for a will, while Ralph wants nothing more than to force Raymond out of the attic, get his inheritance and leave. Raymond, however, has his own ideas and wants any inheritance to be distributed equitably.

Swados was a part of the New York intellectuals and the writing is intelligent. The actual plot is slow moving since any development is established more by dialog than action and Swados has his characters propel his themes forward through dialog. Chapters are all told from the point of view of one of the characters. Savvy readers will catch the references to The Brothers Karamazov in The Will.

Harvey Swados is also remembered for his concern that the introduction of pocket-size books, paperbacks, would result in a “flood of trash” that threatened to “debase farther the popular taste."

Highly Recommended

Excerpt

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Open Road Media via Netgalley for review purposes.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.