Delighted this was stated. ...his stories are not so much standard realist stories as arrangements.... the point..is more in the holistic mood of the arrangement, the narrative (and emotional) gestalt. This may be why those of us who respect his stories are often unmoved by the criticism that the psychology of his characters doesn't really hold water. The incredulity we often get from people who don't believe that this one event in this story could inform an entire life. Thanks again!
Thank you, Sherman—I do find myself sometimes criticizing his stories on that basis! But then I'm reminded how tenuously he's working in the realist mode, in spite of being so great at evoking the trappings of reality...
Delighted this was stated. ...his stories are not so much standard realist stories as arrangements.... the point..is more in the holistic mood of the arrangement, the narrative (and emotional) gestalt. This may be why those of us who respect his stories are often unmoved by the criticism that the psychology of his characters doesn't really hold water. The incredulity we often get from people who don't believe that this one event in this story could inform an entire life. Thanks again!
Thank you, Sherman—I do find myself sometimes criticizing his stories on that basis! But then I'm reminded how tenuously he's working in the realist mode, in spite of being so great at evoking the trappings of reality...