(no subject)

[decemberthirty]

I'm still reading The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, and, man, is it good. It seems like a very complete book somehow, thoroughly imagined and fully realized. Every word in it seems to be deeply felt; nothing feels inconsequential to me. The funny thing about it is that while every word feels essential, I don't yet know what it is that they are essential to. The book still feels like it is leading up to something major, but I can't yet say what that is. Lately, though, I've gotten the sense that there is sex seething under the surface of the story. And not just sex, but something deviant and discomforting, homosexuality, pedophilia, rape, I don't know what, I just feel it lurking there. I've also noticed some interesting things going on in the story regarding gender. I'm fascinated by the way that Biff Brannon is crossing gender lines: wearing his dead wife's perfume, using her lemon rinse on his hair, the way his sister told him he'd make a good mother. Reminds me of Rivers and the "male mother" scene... Which character was it who called him that?

I guess I don't really have much of a point here. I just wanted to record a few of my impressions at this point in my reading. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is affecting me more than anything I've read in a while, hitting me with my favorite one-two punch to the intellect and the emotions, and I'm very pleased. Also, I just think the title is fantastic. Is it a quotation or a reference, or simply the truest statement ever? God, I feel like a fifteen-year-old, saying stuff like that, but I'm just gonna have express it...