⋙ [PDF] Free Omensetter Luck Classic 20thCentury Penguin William H Gass 9780141180106 Books

Omensetter Luck Classic 20thCentury Penguin William H Gass 9780141180106 Books

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Omensetter Luck Classic 20thCentury Penguin William H Gass 9780141180106 Books

To think that for nearly thirty years, Omensetter's Luck was the only novel William Gass had brought into the world. Not the most prolific author ever, but Gass's perfectionist tendencies certainly shine through when it comes to how he works his prose; the man strings metaphors and lyrical rhymes together in such a way that almost seems natural. I mention the prose before anything else about the book, really, because to put it bluntly the prose is the main reason why you read a Gass work, but don't construe that as a point against the man. Few writers can claim to possess the level of poetic talent that Gass has, and just as few can claim to pack so much emotional and philosophical turmoil into such a simple story. In a few ways he is like the opposite of Stephen King, a bitter man who dwells over the arrangement of words to such a degree that his output as well as his audience is incredibly limited. Very few people will ever read Omensetter's Luck, and even fewer will adore it for the dense but oddly gorgeous novel it is; even as I write this review I fear I have not understood some parts of it after one reading, so I plan on going through Omensetter's Luck a second time in the future most definitely. Why do I adore it, though? Well...

Listen: Brackett Omensetter is not the main character of this novel. He is in the book quite a bit, though not as much as you'd think, and never does he hijack the narrative like several characters do. In fact, for much of the story Omensetter comes off as a rather boring figure, a man who's round and jolly like Santa Claus and almost as supernatural to boot. He is lucky, as the title indicates. When Omensetter and his family move into Gilean, a small Ohio town at the tail end of the 19th century, the townsfolk generally treat them nicely, despite their own problems bubbling beneath the surface. The first two sections of the book take place from the perspectives of Israbestis Tott and Henry Pimber respectively, two men who suffer from loneliness and the pains of missed opportunities in their own ways. When we meet Tott at the beginning we are actually reading the epilogue, as Omensetter and his family had already left the town, and Tott is a sort of aging gossiper who tells the same stories to the same people, much to their annoyance. He is an extrovert who hungers for the company of his fellow men, but finds himself forever unsatisfied, no matter how much he perseveres. Pimber, on the other hand, is a landlord who deals with an emotionally distant wife and a thankless job. He falls seriously ill and, much to everyone's surprise, is cured by Omensetter; the sickness remains in a sense, though, as Pimber becomes deeply depressed and contemplates suicide...

And here we arrive at the bulk of the novel and, according to Gass, the sole justification for its existence. Meet Jethro Furber, Gilean's local Protestant preacher who may or may not be going insane. Growing up in a Methodist household, guilt and self-hatred burned into his mind, Furber didn't have the happiest of childhoods, and as an adult he tries to deal with his internal struggles through consulting the town's former minister (or rather the former minister's grave), concocting dirty but admittedly entertaining songs, and spouting fire-and-brimstone style sermons. Get used to him, because he's the closest thing to a protagonist the book has, and what a character he is! While several of Gilean's residents get somewhat fleshed-out backstories and personalities, it is Furber who takes the brunt of the character development stick; he is demented, but not necessarily evil, and while he thinks a lot of nasty things he is also shown to have a conscience. Omensetter's Luck is a book full of dualism, good and evil, innocence and depravity, idealism and cynicism, and finally superstition and reality. For a deceptively straightforward tale there is a lot of ground covered.

As an avant-garde novel, of course, there is a price to consider. The dialogue lacks quotation marks, which for fans of Cormac McCarthy shouldn't be uncharted territory, although there is an abundance of stream-of-consciousness and a prevalent ambiguity between what is spoken and what is merely thought. The structure is also a tad out of whack, and should be taken into consideration for anyone planning on getting through Omensetter's Luck in less than a week; while Tott and Pimber's sections go by relatively quick, the first chapter of Furber's section is a long and soul-draining trip, the part where the book goes to Hell (or do we?) and throws the reader right into the lion's den. It's ultimately rewarding, though, in multiple ways, and while it's not for everyone I feel like Omensetter's Luck deserves a much bigger audience than it currently has. Then again, if David Foster Wallace couldn't elevate the book to more than cult classic status than we may as well appreciate what we got, right?


Tags : Omensetter's Luck (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) [William H. Gass] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b> The most important work of fiction by an American in this literary generation. - The New Republic</i></b> Now celebrating the 50th anniversary of its publication,William H. Gass,Omensetter's Luck (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin),Penguin Classics,0141180102,Literary,USA,City and town life,City and town life - Fiction,City and town life;Fiction.,Clergy,Clergy - Fiction,Clergy;Fiction.,Good and evil,Good and evil - Fiction,Good and evil;Fiction.,Historical fiction,Ohio,Ohio - Fiction,Classics,Crime & mystery,English,FICTION Classics,FICTION Historical General,FICTION Literary,Fiction,Fiction-Literary,GASS, WILLIAM - PROSE & CRITICISM,GENERAL,Literature - Classics Criticism,ScholarlyUndergraduate,United States,american literature; literary fiction; marriage; historical fiction; modernism; drama; classic literature; school; americana; family; race; satire; coming of age; classic books; fiction; classics; fiction books; literature; historical fiction books; historical fiction novels; classic; short stories; war; modern; postmodernism; southern; historical; classic fiction; love; relationships; drugs; novels; alternate history; historical novels; classic novels; realistic fiction books; classics books; books fiction; books historical fiction,classic;literary fiction;historical;classic literature;historical fiction books;historical fiction novels;classic books;classic novels;alternate history;historical fiction;classics;fiction;novels;fiction books;historical novels;literature;books fiction;classics books;realistic fiction books;books historical fiction;classic fiction;american literature;short stories;marriage;family;drama;satire;war;americana;modernism;relationships;feminism;book club recommendations;philosophy;love;rabbits,Classics,FICTION Classics,FICTION Historical General,FICTION Literary,Literature - Classics Criticism,Gass, William - Prose & Criticism,Fiction,Literature: Classics,Crime & mystery,English

Omensetter Luck Classic 20thCentury Penguin William H Gass 9780141180106 Books Reviews

In this experimental novel of scene-chewing language it's all about the words. It's as if dozens of crossword puzzles spewed volcanically over the pages, but the words are not hard or multi-syllabic, simply difficult to understand as used in these sentences. There are several narrators who are difficult to read initially and most are in some sort of spiritual trouble, in particular Reverend Jethro Furber. He is a person with absolutely no anchor of any kind, and his insane verbiage narrates 3/4ths of the story. Despite that, this is a work of genius, in my opinion. Without question, it has to be read several times for clarity, but it does become clearer with each reading. The writing is beautiful, and many sentences and paragraphs will tempt you to memorize them.

The narrators, for different reasons, have problems thinking coherently, and since this is a stream-of-consciousness experimental novel, it is a slow read. There is real method to the writing madness, however. The author definitely sweated over these sentences, but, for me, parsing them out is hard.

The first chapter begins with the town's story teller at an auction. The name of the chapter is 'The Triumph of Israbestis Tott'. Unlike the other chapters where the narrators are distressed, Tott, through his stories, has a firm grip on his internal life, despite the mysteries and unsolved problems. Sharing histories with anyone who listens, he enjoys himself. He feels connected to his community, but old age and the passing of people he knew is chipping away at him. Still, he has the stories.

The main narrater, who is Furber, has thoughts which are full of Biblical references which he cannot stop thinking about despite his complete lack of belief or faith. I think he once believed that the meaning of life was hidden in word ideas, but the senses of his body are overwhelming him with an unfiltered, unscreened flood of sensations of everything - bodies that he cannot help sexualizing at all times and places, faces, smells, hands, rustling clothes, hair, furniture, light, trees, rivers - which he is desperate to reject as a wrong thing - but worst of all, the ghosts of the dead appear to have something to say to him, but he is going mad trying to speak to them. He is desperate to impart meanings to his shrinking congregation, but he is unable to give an ungarbled sermon. His section gives one pause over "I think, therefore I am" (Descartes). He is John Lennon's Nowhere Man.

Brackett Omensetter arrives in town with his pregnant wife and two daughters, his household goods precariously unsecured in a wagon. It's 1890. He is a respectable Natural Man, a blacksmith, charismatic and lucky. He immediately affects the entire town with his lack of anxiety or preparations or precautions in any endeavor -he simply does it, and it always comes out fine. He does not have observations the reader can share, he simply is observed and discussed by the other characters. While his thoughts are silent on the page, the entire town is deeply unsettled because of his presence. Omensetter 'was a wide and happy man.' He appears to have only an interest in the present.

Reverend Jethro Furber is unstable, possessed of a 'diseased imagination', and he cannot abide Omensetter. He decides to force town opinion to reject Omensetter, so he starts a massive campaign of lies against the happy smith. He makes little headway until the mysterious disappearance of Henry Pimber, a respectable townsman. Omensetter, as Pimber's renter, is the last to see Pimber before he disappeared. Pimber's chapter is called, "The Love and Sorrow of Henry Pimber." Pimber cannot help comparing himself with Omensetter and realizing his life was a 'fool's gold' of observation while Omensetter ' joined himself to what he knew'. Before meeting Omensetter, Pimber had been like a stone. After, it was all 'painful beauty'. He is literally frozen into immobility, partially because of the sudden self-realizations about his existence.

The examined life can be a nightmare, I guess.
The wordplay, yes, is Joycean, but the bitterness is all Gass’s own. The first 70 pages or so are flawless—and arguably the two sections those pages comprise should go on longer. There is an indulgent 75-page stream thereafter introducing the untidy and unsavory mind of the Reverend Jethro Furber; shot through with scattered verbal brilliance, it is far too long, though parts are necessary for what follows when, at last, the loose but captivating plot reactivates itself and the final hundred pages or so are relentlessly great. Stay with it till the end and you’ll likely find truth in David Foster Wallace’s judgment of the book “Bleak but gorgeous, like light through ice.”
To think that for nearly thirty years, Omensetter's Luck was the only novel William Gass had brought into the world. Not the most prolific author ever, but Gass's perfectionist tendencies certainly shine through when it comes to how he works his prose; the man strings metaphors and lyrical rhymes together in such a way that almost seems natural. I mention the prose before anything else about the book, really, because to put it bluntly the prose is the main reason why you read a Gass work, but don't construe that as a point against the man. Few writers can claim to possess the level of poetic talent that Gass has, and just as few can claim to pack so much emotional and philosophical turmoil into such a simple story. In a few ways he is like the opposite of Stephen King, a bitter man who dwells over the arrangement of words to such a degree that his output as well as his audience is incredibly limited. Very few people will ever read Omensetter's Luck, and even fewer will adore it for the dense but oddly gorgeous novel it is; even as I write this review I fear I have not understood some parts of it after one reading, so I plan on going through Omensetter's Luck a second time in the future most definitely. Why do I adore it, though? Well...

Listen Brackett Omensetter is not the main character of this novel. He is in the book quite a bit, though not as much as you'd think, and never does he hijack the narrative like several characters do. In fact, for much of the story Omensetter comes off as a rather boring figure, a man who's round and jolly like Santa Claus and almost as supernatural to boot. He is lucky, as the title indicates. When Omensetter and his family move into Gilean, a small Ohio town at the tail end of the 19th century, the townsfolk generally treat them nicely, despite their own problems bubbling beneath the surface. The first two sections of the book take place from the perspectives of Israbestis Tott and Henry Pimber respectively, two men who suffer from loneliness and the pains of missed opportunities in their own ways. When we meet Tott at the beginning we are actually reading the epilogue, as Omensetter and his family had already left the town, and Tott is a sort of aging gossiper who tells the same stories to the same people, much to their annoyance. He is an extrovert who hungers for the company of his fellow men, but finds himself forever unsatisfied, no matter how much he perseveres. Pimber, on the other hand, is a landlord who deals with an emotionally distant wife and a thankless job. He falls seriously ill and, much to everyone's surprise, is cured by Omensetter; the sickness remains in a sense, though, as Pimber becomes deeply depressed and contemplates suicide...

And here we arrive at the bulk of the novel and, according to Gass, the sole justification for its existence. Meet Jethro Furber, Gilean's local Protestant preacher who may or may not be going insane. Growing up in a Methodist household, guilt and self-hatred burned into his mind, Furber didn't have the happiest of childhoods, and as an adult he tries to deal with his internal struggles through consulting the town's former minister (or rather the former minister's grave), concocting dirty but admittedly entertaining songs, and spouting fire-and-brimstone style sermons. Get used to him, because he's the closest thing to a protagonist the book has, and what a character he is! While several of Gilean's residents get somewhat fleshed-out backstories and personalities, it is Furber who takes the brunt of the character development stick; he is demented, but not necessarily evil, and while he thinks a lot of nasty things he is also shown to have a conscience. Omensetter's Luck is a book full of dualism, good and evil, innocence and depravity, idealism and cynicism, and finally superstition and reality. For a deceptively straightforward tale there is a lot of ground covered.

As an avant-garde novel, of course, there is a price to consider. The dialogue lacks quotation marks, which for fans of Cormac McCarthy shouldn't be uncharted territory, although there is an abundance of stream-of-consciousness and a prevalent ambiguity between what is spoken and what is merely thought. The structure is also a tad out of whack, and should be taken into consideration for anyone planning on getting through Omensetter's Luck in less than a week; while Tott and Pimber's sections go by relatively quick, the first chapter of Furber's section is a long and soul-draining trip, the part where the book goes to Hell (or do we?) and throws the reader right into the lion's den. It's ultimately rewarding, though, in multiple ways, and while it's not for everyone I feel like Omensetter's Luck deserves a much bigger audience than it currently has. Then again, if David Foster Wallace couldn't elevate the book to more than cult classic status than we may as well appreciate what we got, right?