Ross Macdonald by Bernard A. Schopen (review)

364 Western American Literature Five describe the experience of childbirth; and Part Four, a prose section, tells the story of Potchikoo, a Chippewa trickster who overcomes death. All of the figures burn with desire. Indeed, according to Roman Catholic tradition, “baptism by fire” is the term for the leap of faith necessary to experience spiritual renewal. The figures in the poems seem to me, however, not to escape the demands of the flesh; in “The Savior,” for instance, Christ speaks against God’s purpose for him: “Ash to ash, you say, but I know different. / I will not stop burning.” If there is spiritual renewal, it is through our own human efforts, it seems, not through any divine grace. But we’re too often caught in our own pain to transcend it. As Erdrich says in a poem with the hopeful title of “Translucence ” : It was like this when I had the baby. Looking at you in extremity, so trapped in flesh, the body’s gates slammed closed between us. Perhaps there is no transcendence possible, these poems seem to me to suggest; there is at best acceptance of the “ordinary,” the daylight, when “sunlight fans across the ceiling.” In these poems, Louise Erdrich dares the profound, dares to speak of God, dares to describe the pain of childbirth and the anger of vengefulness and the fear of death. We need more poets with her range. And she, I think, needs to read more poetry and learn from others how to hone and shape her verse. NANCY PROTHRO ARBUTHNOT United States Naval Academy Ross Macdonald. By Bernard A. Schopen. (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1990. 149 pages, $18.95.) This is the fourth book-length study of Ross Macdonald, and it is easily the best. Schopen assimilates the insights of his predecessors while going well beyond them to explain the achievement (but also the limitations) of Mac­ donald’s detective novels. Though his account of Macdonald’s life is accurate and engaging, Schopen focuses very much on what he calls the art of the detective novel as Macdonald developed the form. Macdonald’s western background and his use of California settings are deftly if briefly explored, but Schopen is rather more interested in defining the structure of Macdonald’s novels. Indeed, he wishes to show that the Lew Archer books are indeed novels,complex fictions inwhich Macdonald embodies his notions about modern life in profoundly moving dramatic actions. No one has demonstrated Macdonald’s success in more convincing detail. Schopen’s chapters on The Doomsters (the best of the earlier books) and The Under­ ground Man (the best of the later books) are among the best individual read­ Reviews 365 ings ever done on detective novels. Elsewhere Schopen offers more condensed assessments of the twenty-three individual novels (seventeen devoted to Lew Archer) and overviews of the “periods” in Macdonald’s long career. Thus Schopen highlights both the major accomplishments and the essential curva­ ture of Macdonald’s career. The major strength of this extremely well-written study is its individual assessments, especially those worked out in meticulous detail. My reservations are details of another kind. Schopen often compares Macdonald’s works to Raymond Chandler’s, almost always to Macdonald’s advantage, and I think that a more sustained discussion of Chandler would have made this comparison more effective. Occasionally, too, the brevity with which some novels are treated renders the discussion all too general. Such minor irritations detract very little from the excellence of this study, however, an excellence to be seen in everything from the annotated bibliography to specific comments such as the following on Lew Archer: “He would love, but finally his will to love is not as strong as the ‘cruelty in my will to justice.’ Thus the absence of a real per­ sonal life. Thus the emotional intensity of his professional life” (68). Thus the unusual authority of Schopen’s book, which should be read by anyone inter­ ested in Macdonald or detective fiction. ROBERT MERRILL University of Nevada, Reno Entering A Life. By Ernesto Trejo. (Houston: Arte Publico Press, 1990. 78 pages, $8.95.) Who Will Know Us? By Gary Soto. (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1990...