The Light Possessed by Alan Cheuse

Abstract

258 WesternAmerican Literature place. He cannot face a future without his beloved wife. Furthermore, to his horror, Mariah and Riley, atfirst at odds in the aftermath of a bitter divorce, re­ discover their passion for each other. Within the frame of this picaresque novel, complicated by forays into history and memory, Doig explores major themes through complex and subtle narratives marked by duality ofvoice: the outwardly superficial and cynical Riley writes sharp, passionate columns, the outwardly laconic Jick is, inwardly, poet and philosopher. Through the play ofvoices, Doig explores issues of epistemology , tensions between past and present, conflicts between formal history and personal narrative, intricacies of memory, questions of responsibility. Finally Jick’s inner and outer voices merge, and he is able to make unconventional decisions about his daughter, his future, his land. In his 1964 essay, “History, Myth and the Western Writer,”Wallace Stegner lamented that no one had yet created a western Yoknapawpha county, traced historical continuities of the region. With This House of Sky and the Montana trilogy, Doig has done just that. But comparisons with Faulkner, or anybody else, must be made reservedly—Doig’s work is unique, and his voice ultimately realistic,joyous, life-affirming. ELIZABETH SIMPSON Gottingen, Germany The Light Possessed. By Alan Cheuse. (Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith, Peregrine Smith Books, 1990. 325 pages, $19.95.) The Light Possessed is a novel based on episodes from the life of Georgia O’Keeffe. Although the protagonist is called Ava Boldin, the events of her life and the names of some of the other characters (especially her husband, a professional photographer and gallery owner called Albert Stigmar, a character obviously modeled on Alfred Stieglitz) make absolutely clear that the book is largely about O’Keeffe. Running through the novel is a second narrative about Michael, a sculptor and Stigmar’s illegitimate son, and Michael’s girlfriend Amy, a would-be writer from Bennington College. The narratives come to­ gether when Michael and Amy travel to New Mexico to live and work with the aging Ava. This is a strange book. Some of the names of people and places involved in O’Keeffe’s life are changed, but others are not. Some of the changes are obvious, such as that of Stigmar. West Texas State Teacher’s College becomes Canyon State College, yet the town it is in remains Canyon. Stanley Edgar Hymen’s name is not changed, yet the narrative concerning Michael and Amy says some terrible things about Hymen and his wife. Bernard Malamud, Sherwood Anderson, and Mabel Dodge also appear under their own names. The book is disappointing in several ways. Too much of it is simple narra­ Reviews 259 tive of what happened where, perhaps because Cheuse tries to cover too many episodes from O’Keeffe’s life. Also, the pose in the framing device that some of the material is supposedly from Amy’s research into Ava’s life at times does not work, especially in the section entitled “Vermont”in which Michael recounts for Amy many things she knows from having been involved in them Still, the novel reads quickly. Some of its characters, such as Ava, her brother Robert, and her friend and his lover, Harriet Cardoza, come to life. It gives good descriptions of many places important to O’Keeffe’s life and works, especially places in Chicago; Canyon, Texas; New York City; and New Mexico. And it echoes some of O’Keeffe’s more interesting and lyrical statements about the light found in all of these places. RICHARD TUERK East Texas State University HeartMountain. By Gretel Ehrlich. (New York: Viking Penguin, 1989. 412 pages, $8.95.) Heart Mountain tells at least two stories about the internment ofJapaneseAmerican citizens during the Second World War, one from the Anglo-American perspective and one from that of a group of Japanese-Americans relocated there. Gretel Ehrlich attempts to probe the barriers between the two cultures, forced together in the unnatural relationship of captor and captives. Although her promise of insight into Japanese culture is not fulfilled, the stories arising out of the people residing near Heart Mountain are deftly told with compelling detail. One plot line follows McKay, a rancher...