Elsinor: A Novel
by Charles Webb | Literature & Fiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 0070688036 Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 0070688036 Global Overview for this book
Registered by 
GoryDetails
of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 7/11/2019
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 7/11/2019 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I found this hardcover, by the author of The Graduate, at a local Goodwill thrift shop. It has an interesting premise: a woman visits a gay men's club, the Blue Stallion Baths, looking for her husband, only to find that he's already gone, with the enigmatic man called "Elsinor". Cue a domestic tragedy of sorts - with complications...
The opening scenes are a mix of cringe-worthy and funny, or so they struck me. The book came out in the '70s and seems to have been set in that time, if not a little earlier, so it's not unlikely that a housewife would be unfamiliar with the etiquette at a gay men's bathhouse, but to see her persist in trying to see the names on the register, go inside to look for herself, request to have her husband paged... it's clear that she either doesn't know or doesn't care that it's taboo to risk outing any of the patrons! The management does cater to some of her wishes, probably to avoid her calling the police, but it doesn't help her much. I do have to wonder what reader reaction was to this opening when the book first came out; as it is now, I'm profoundly sympathetic to the bathhouse clients and staff, while acknowledging how rough it must have been on the wife to learn about her husband's infidelity this way...
By the end of the book I wasn't any fonder of her, and the other main characters didn't shine either - so much duplicity and obtuseness and general discomfort all around... The writing style didn't help, being very, very terse and choppy, whether in the narration or the character dialog. (Yes, all the characters spoke in a very similar pattern, offputting to say the least.) I was rather pleased that, after all the ups and downs, the straying husband used his words to make it perfectly clear how he felt about his wife (hint: not good), but he handled the entire situation very, very badly, even allowing for the time and place in which the story's set. And the battle for custody of the children made the whole situation even uglier. Sigh.
So... interesting concept, but not an enjoyable read at all.
The opening scenes are a mix of cringe-worthy and funny, or so they struck me. The book came out in the '70s and seems to have been set in that time, if not a little earlier, so it's not unlikely that a housewife would be unfamiliar with the etiquette at a gay men's bathhouse, but to see her persist in trying to see the names on the register, go inside to look for herself, request to have her husband paged... it's clear that she either doesn't know or doesn't care that it's taboo to risk outing any of the patrons! The management does cater to some of her wishes, probably to avoid her calling the police, but it doesn't help her much. I do have to wonder what reader reaction was to this opening when the book first came out; as it is now, I'm profoundly sympathetic to the bathhouse clients and staff, while acknowledging how rough it must have been on the wife to learn about her husband's infidelity this way...
By the end of the book I wasn't any fonder of her, and the other main characters didn't shine either - so much duplicity and obtuseness and general discomfort all around... The writing style didn't help, being very, very terse and choppy, whether in the narration or the character dialog. (Yes, all the characters spoke in a very similar pattern, offputting to say the least.) I was rather pleased that, after all the ups and downs, the straying husband used his words to make it perfectly clear how he felt about his wife (hint: not good), but he handled the entire situation very, very badly, even allowing for the time and place in which the story's set. And the battle for custody of the children made the whole situation even uglier. Sigh.
So... interesting concept, but not an enjoyable read at all.
Journal Entry 2 by GoryDetails at Little Free Library, South St. in Milford, New Hampshire USA on Friday, August 23, 2019
GoryDetails at Little Free Library, South St. in Milford, New Hampshire USA on Friday, August 23, 2019
Released 4 yrs ago (8/23/2019 UTC) at Little Free Library, South St. in Milford, New Hampshire USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
I left this book in the Little Free Library; hope someone enjoys it![See other recent releases in NH here.]
*** Released for the 2019 One-Word Title release challenge. ***
