Since I was lamenting the slowness of getting my February NYRB book, I have to share that it did indeed finally arrive safe and sound and I am already reading it. This month we are treated to John Williams's (of Stoner fame) first novel published in 1948, Nothing but the Night. I must admit that I have not yet (though I own) read Stoner. Not so long ago it seemed to be the book and everyone was reading it--even friends who live abroad.
Nothing but the Night is probably really curious in comparison to his other books. Or at least based on what little I have read thus far, I imagine it to be so. While I have nothing to compare it to, I have to say I really like what I have read so far. The book description begins "John Williams's first novel is a brooding psychological noir", and you might know I am very fond of noir novels. It's sort of dreamy and trancelike and you are teased with the knowledge that something happened in Arthur Maxley's (the narrator) past and that something is going to happen now to set him off again, as he is a "young man at the end of his emotional rope." And it has to do with his parents. His father in particular.
So, a little teaser--it's strange sometimes to be inside the head of someone else--a narrator whose mind you cannot quite trust.
"He got up suddenly and shook his head as if to clear away the threatening clouds of dark, unwelcome thought. Without willing it, he visualized his father as he had seen him last, almost three years before. But it was partial visualization; his image did not completely materialize. A neat gray suit and a wide expanse of pale forehead: that was as much as he could see in his remembering. The rest of it was dim and, if not forgotten, at least was obscured by the habitual force of conscious will. He shrunk from thinking too intently on the memory of his father, for there began to creep into that memory another vision, a familiar nightmare, his other in that room, her face which . . ."
If there was a soundtrack to go along with this book, there would be some dark, eery music. pom, pom, pom, crack of lightening, lights out . . . I want to race to the end to find out just what happened. Arthur seems quite damaged. The question is why?