Farther Off From Heaven by William Humphrey (review)

Reviews 339 Preface, the editor defends this diversity as necessary under the circum­ stances, and praises it as contributing to the stimulus to interest in Steinbeck’s short stories which is the aim of the volume. At the same time, I suspect that instructors using the book in the undergraduate classroom will have their labors cut out to avoid the “the-main-thing-to-rememberahout -The-Red-Pony-is . . .” syndrome. Barber’s summary essay dwells upon Steinbeck’s comparative failure to master the short story form (another aspect of the book which may prove disconcerting to pragmatic undergraduates) and attributes to this Steinbeck’s later reliance upon fable. Because the book is clearly intended for classroom use, it may be worthwhile for the prospective user to inspect the editorial apparatus with some care. The “Selective Checklist” or bibliography should be valuable to undergraduates on the sophomore or higher level; it is difficult to conceive of presenting these essays to freshmen of the level of experience that most of us must confront. On the other hand, the study questions (invariably five, despite the differences in complexity and intensity of the stories and the essays written on them) seldom approach the full demands of the essays, I should think. Gratefully, however, none of them is on the “When was the War of 1812?” level. All-in-all, this study guide, like most, strikes me as being a fairly mechanical job, which is not meant to be a pejorative criticism when the use is considered. Indeed, the main difficulty with the book may be to find the proper use for it. Steinbeck enthusiasts may find it a welcome tool, but they should study usage levels and the inferences of the diverse approaches carefully before committing themselves. ARTHUR FRIETZSCHE California Polytechnic State University Farther Off From Heaven. By William Humphrey. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1977. $8.95.) This book may be viewed as an autobiography or as a treatise on the sociological evolution of a small east Texas community from its early origin, through the depression of the late 20’s and early 30’s when cotton was king, to the present. Either way, it is a good book, worth reading. William Humphrey has done for Clarksville what George Sessions Perry has done for Rockdale, what Larry McMurtry has done for Archer City, and what Thomas Wolfe did for Asheville, N. C. You come to know how the town looks, how the people live, and their raison d’etre. 340 Western American Literature But a place is also a time. You remember your home town as it was way back when you grew up there, before you left it. Humphrey’s method is to begin at the point of departure in 1938 on the date of his father’s funeral, the turning point in his own life. Then, chapter after chapter flashes back anywhere from a few weeks to four years previously to some dramatic event. So, the time span covers his adolescence from about eight to fourteen years of age. The day after his father died from a car wreck, Humphrey and his mother moved to Dallas: and Humphrey stayed gone for thirty-two years, traveling widely and never returning but never for­ getting. Humphrey paints his word pictures of the town, its surroundings, its citizenry (stratified socially, segregated racially, yet living together and working together in relative peace and quiet). His metaphors, to me, are the best thing about the book — the most appropriate and most vivid. His pictures are realistic, not nostalgic, regional but not provincial, candid but not gruesome. He paints his people with all their faults and some of their virtues. There is much introspection, as he looks into his own soul, his mother’s, and especially his father’s. His father (whom he likens more than once to the actor James Cagney) seems more the main character than the narrator. The elder Humphrey had escaped the farm at a young age to become a self-trained auto-mechanic, a small man physically, but compact, pugnacious, wild, irresponsible, the best hunter in town, a man with a way with hail-fellow well-met friends but also with...