The Art of Frank Norris, Storyteller by Barbara Hochman, and: Frank Norris and The Wave: A Bibliography by Joseph J. McElrath, Jr.

Abstract

Reviews 73 The Art of Frank Norris, Storyteller. By Barbara Hochman. (Columbia: Uni­ versity of Missouri Press, 1988. 149 pages, $22.00.) Frank Norris and The Wave: A Bibliography. ByJoseph J. McElrath, Jr. (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1988. 161 pages.) Continued interest in fin-de-siècle California novelist Frank Norris is demonstrated by the two latest contributions to Norris studies, one focusing on his artistry, the other on his early days as a magazine writer and editor. Barbara Hochman’s text explores Norris’s four major novels (Vandover and the Brute, McTeague, The Octopus, and The Pit) as artistic ventures rather than mere examples of naturalistic philosophy;as Hochman notes in her opening chapter, Norris was a “dubious naturalist” at bestbut always a premier storyteller, a term which she takes great pains to define precisely. Hochman rightly notes that neither Norris’s correspondence nor his literary criticism evidence much interest in “pure” naturalistic philosophy but instead reveal his concern with the “relationship between commonplace surface and subter­ ranean turmoil,” the stuff of which good fiction is made. Her contention, that the key to Norris’s work “can be most clearly elucidated by focusing on the non-ideological thrust of the fiction and, particularly on the imaginative coherence implicit in its events, dialogue, and imagery,” isconvincingly argued and very well-supported throughout the text. In a remarkable chapter, “The Power of the Word,” Hochman introduces the idea that Norris uses storytelling, stories told by one character to another, as a connective thread and means of introspection in the novels. Supported by telling examples from the four major novels, as well as from the often slighted earlier works Blix and Yvernelle, Hochman’s argument is so convincing that avid Norriseans will wonder how they could have failed to see it themselves. The remaining chapters explore varying aspects of Norris’s use of language, memory, and art as means of degeneration and regeneration in the four major novels. Her arguments are strong enough in each instance to over­ come the traditional “life in the raw naturalism” label usually used to explain Norris’swork. Joseph McElrath’s latest work, an updated bibliography of Frank Norris’s contributions to The Wave, is no exception to the seminal scholarship we have come to expect from him. Norris’s association with the San Francisco weekly has been an on-going source of debate for scholars: because the majority of Wave articles were unsigned or written under a range of pseudonyms, researchers have had mixed results in trying to isolate Norris’s contributions. McElrath openly acknowledges the difficulty of trying to establish a definitive catalogue of Norris’s Wave writings and does not claim that his book does so; however, what McElrath has done is reduce the number of items positively attributed to Frank Norris to 165, culling out over 500 previously attributed writings. McElrath reviewed issues of The Wave published between 1894 and 1900 to establish a “group style” typical of the magazine’s staff. By establishing the 74 Western American Literature characteristics of this “group style” during periods when Norris was not a member of the staff (he was an employee from 1896-1898), he was able to determine that many writings previously attributed to Norris were, in truth, written by other Wave staffers. The depth of McElrath’s research and analysis are astounding and are painstakingly detailed in the text. In short, these new insights into Norris’s formative period are invaluable for those who are serious Norriseans. BARBARANNE SCHUYLER University of Arizona The New Native American Novel: Works in Progress. Edited by Mary Dough­ erty Bartlett. (Albuquerque: UniversityofNew Mexico Press, 1986. 132 pages, $22.50/$9.95.) Major presses have finally discovered Indians, and well-publicized works by Louise Erdrich and Michael Dorris have joined classics by Momaday and Welch in the microscopic Native American sections of chain bookstores. Still, to read most Native American work, you must order from small presses that have published it for years. The New Native American Novel is an excellent sample by nine writers. N. Scott Momaday’s contribution does not much resemble his betterknown work. Perhaps he’s casting off the limitations of being an...