Desperate Characters
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''Desperate Characters'' is a 1970 novel by
Paula Fox Paula Fox (April 22, 1923 – March 1, 2017) was an American author of novels for adults and children and of two memoirs. For her contributions as a children's writer she won the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1978, the ...
.


Plot

Sophie and Otto Bentwood are a childless, upper-middle class married couple who live in a brownstone in
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
. She is a translator, he an attorney, currently preoccupied by the acrimonious break-up of his long-time business partnership. The action of the novel unfolds in a single long weekend following an incident in which a stray cat bites Sophie on the hand. Though she refuses to see a doctor, Sophie worries incessantly that she may have contracted
rabies Rabies is a viral disease that causes encephalitis in humans and other mammals. Early symptoms can include fever and tingling at the site of exposure. These symptoms are followed by one or more of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, vi ...
. Sophie attends a party, lunches with a friend, shops for kitchen appliances, and drives with Otto to their country home. On a night-time walk with Otto's partner, Charlie Russel, she inadvertently confesses to having had an affair. A series of disquieting events – a rock thrown through a bedroom window, a mysterious phone call, the vandalism of the country house – unnerve the Brentwoods, heightening the fragility of their emotional states and their marriage. On Monday morning, Sophie announces aloud, with "extraordinary relief", "God, if I am rabid, I am equal to what is outside." Shortly afterwards, however, it is established that she is not rabid. Yet on the telephone to an acquaintance, Sophie lashes out; and when Otto arrives home from work, to a phone call from Charlie, he finally has an outburst of rage, hurling against the wall a bottle of ink with which Sophie had planned to write a letter to her mother.


Title

The title, ''Desperate Characters,'' comes from a sentence in
Henry David Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading Transcendentalism, transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural su ...
’s ''
Walden ''Walden'' (; first published in 1854 as ''Walden; or, Life in the Woods'') is a book by American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon the author's simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part ...
'': “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” In the novel, Charlie and Sophie discuss Charlie's "desperation," and Otto tells Sophie that he and Charlie had recently argued over the Thoreau quote. Charlie had written the quote down, in order to stare at it, and called it "a prime example of middle-class self-love." This began a fierce argument between the two men. In the final scene, the motif of desperation returns: Charlie, demanding to speak to Otto on the telephone, yells out that he's desperate, and Otto shouts, "''He's'' desperate!" before throwing the ink bottle at the wall.


Themes

In Martha Conway's words, ''Desperate Characters'' "has at its center the social upheaval—real or imagined" of the 1970s. Signs of the collapse of the social order intrude into the Brentwoods' lives, mirroring the impending collapse of their marriage. Although Sophie and Otto never actually suffer any severe harm over the weekend, this is itself a source of tension, creating unease and foreboding. The suspense comes from the anticipation – both the Bentwoods' and the reader's – of "implosion." Franzen has also suggested that ''Desperate Characters'' should be "read in the context of a contemporary art scene whose aim is the destruction of order and meaning." The Bentwoods, highly cultured and literate, are tormented by "an overload of meaning," which ultimately resembles the absence of any meaning: they are "oppressed and finally overwhelmed by the way in which the most casual words and tiniest incidents feel like 'portents.'" Sophie and Otto's outbursts on Monday, therefore, are read as the Brentwoods "revolting against an unbearable, almost murderous sense of the importance of their words and thoughts." The novel also alludes to class and racial tensions – such as in a scene in which the Brentwoods uneasily allow a black man to use their home telephone. Fox has said of the novel, "There’s a kind of muted drumbeat, which is what racial tension always sounds like to me, except when it explodes."


Publication history

''Desperate Characters'' fell out of print until its 1980 reissue by
Godine Godine is a New England based independent book publisher, known for its beautifully published and carefully selected books, primarily nonfiction, literary fiction, and poetry. History The company was founded in 1970 by David R. Godine who acted a ...
, which included an afterword by
Irving Howe Irving Howe (; June 11, 1920 – May 5, 1993) was an American literary and social critic and a prominent figure of the Democratic Socialists of America. Early years Howe was born as Irving Horenstein in The Bronx, New York. He was the son o ...
. After another period out of print, it was reissued in 1999 by
W.W. Norton W. W. Norton & Company is an American publishing company based in New York City. Established in 1923, it has been owned wholly by its employees since the early 1960s. The company is known for its Norton Anthologies (particularly ''The Norton Ant ...
, with a preface by
Jonathan Franzen Jonathan Earl Franzen (born August 17, 1959) is an American novelist and essayist. His 2001 novel ''The Corrections'', a sprawling, satirical family drama, drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award, was a Pulitzer Pr ...
. The 1999 reissue was inspired by the publication in '' Harper’s'' of "Why Bother?", in which Franzen lauds the novel. It has been translated into Spanish, Italian, German, Swedish, French, Portuguese, Greek, and Slovak.


Critical reception

The novel received generally good reviews both upon its release and in subsequent printings. Howe, in his afterword to the 1980 reissue, placed it within "a major American tradition, the line of the short novel exemplified by ''
Billy Budd ''Billy Budd, Sailor (An Inside Narrative)'' is a novella by American writer Herman Melville, left unfinished at his death in 1891. Acclaimed by critics as a masterpiece when a hastily transcribed version was finally published in 1924, it quick ...
'', ''
The Great Gatsby ''The Great Gatsby'' is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts First-person narrative, first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious mil ...
'', ''
Miss Lonelyhearts ''Miss Lonelyhearts'' is a novella by Nathanael West. He began writing it early in 1930 and completed the manuscript in November 1932. Published in 1933, it is an Expressionist black comedy set in New York City during the Great Depression. It is ...
'' and '' Seize the Day''": a tradition in which "everything—action, form, language—is fiercely compressed, and often enough, dark-grained as well." In his preface to the new edition, Franzen called it the greatest realist novel of the postwar era.


Adaptations in other media

The book was made into
a movie ''A Movie'' (styled as ''A MOVIE'') is a 1958 experimental collage film by American artist Bruce Conner. It combines pieces of found footage taken from various sources such as newsreels, soft-core pornography, and B movies, all set to a score ...
starring
Shirley MacLaine Shirley MacLaine (born Shirley MacLean Beaty, April 24, 1934) is an American actress, author, and former dancer. Known for her portrayals of quirky, strong-willed and eccentric women, MacLaine has received numerous accolades over her seven-dec ...
in 1971. Fox did not like the movie: "The whole thing lacked a certain kind of inner gravity."


Appearances in popular culture

The book was referenced in the first season of the Netflix series ''
You In Modern English, ''you'' is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers. History ''You'' comes from the Proto- ...
''.


Notes


External links

* . * {{Citation , url = http://books.wwnorton.com/books/desperate-characters/ , title = Desperate Characters , publisher = WW Norton , access-date = 2012-10-11 , archive-url = https://archive.today/20130210045615/http://books.wwnorton.com/books/desperate-characters/ , archive-date = 2013-02-10 , url-status = dead . 1970 American novels Harcourt (publisher) books Novels by Paula Fox American novels adapted into films Novels set in New York City