Novels and Essays: Vandover and the Brute / McTeague / The Octopus / Essays by Frank NorrisMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
An author cannot live on dreary, depressing novels alone. I listened to the audiobook versions of Frank Norris’ three novels in this Library of America collection over the last six years (reviewed separately), and found every story to be well written but depressing at its core, mostly dealing with greed, stupidity, and downright foolishness leading to a downfall. The Library of America included a number of magazine articles written by Norris, and I read those recently. With the articles you get an entirely different view of the author. Norris wrote literary criticism that had an edgy feel. His writing was modern. The topics seemed chosen to cause readers to be provocative to the literary crowd. I got the feeling that he was writing to reach a word count in most of these articles, as parts seemed there just to fill space. It was interesting to see this different perspective on the author, but unless you are a Norris scholar, these articles aren’t necessary. Overall, I am very glad I read Norris’ novels in this collection, and will likely read his other popular novel, “The Pit”, after I build up some positive reserves to counter the likely depressing story.
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