From the author of
Carter Beats the Devil comes a panoramic tale of power and stardom, ambition
and dreams that reaches from California to Russia. At the heart of its
enthralling cast of characters – which includes a thieving Girl Scout, Mary
Pickford, a charismatic British general and even the dog Rin Tin Tin – lies the
troubled genius that was Charlie Chaplin.
Here America debuts on
the world stage in the Great War, Hollywood blossoms into a global phenomenon,
and the cult of the celebrity is born. Here, in a novel as darkly comic as it
is thrilling, the modern age dawns.
While this book deals, again, with early Twentieth century American
culture and Hollywood, only one element was needed to win me over – Charlie Chaplin.
I am
huge Chaplin fan and I have already read his Autobiography and two other
biographies, so the prospect of a delving into a fictionalised account was both an appealing and a refreshing prospect.
So it is certainly not lack of interest in the
subject matter!
Structure
It is the structure then? With Doctor Whom: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Parodication the fact that the chapters were presented out of chronological
order did my head in. Likewise, with Carter
and Sunnyside they also have unconventional
structures, but with these novels it is something that appeals to me.
Carter is laid out like a magic act performance, so the book is split up into sections with each section having their
own collection of chapters: Act 1: Metamorphosis (fifteen
chapters), Act 2: An Inquiry into the Spirit World (twenty five chapters), Act
3: Carter Beats the Devil (ten chapters) and an Overture (prologue) and Curtain
(Epilogue).
This structure appealed to me because it was very reminiscent of the cinematic adaptation of The Prestige, where the three act structure of the magician’s performance is integral to the film’s very intricate plot. I had hoped that with Carter this would prove the same but, as I never actually finished the book, I still don’t know.
Likewise, as Sunnyside is about a cinematic icon the book is
structured like a Cinema program. This was something that went out of fashion
in the 1950s, but originally a cinema program would present other features, in
addition to the main feature, such as: short films, cartoons, newsreels,
travelogues etc. Sunnyside is split
up into six sections with each section having its own collection of chapters
and with each section constituting a particular item of a cinema program; In
this case and in this order: a newsreel,
a travelogue, a two reel comedy, a serial,
a feature presentation and a sing along.
The way in which a
book is structured can be a useful tool for creating suspense, as J.R.R. Tolkien does
in the latter two books of The Lord of the Rings; in the way he keeps Frodo and Sam’s story separate from the rest
of the fellowship. However, the structuring of a book can also lead to the book
being incredibly baffling as Laurence Sterne illustrates with The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman; wherein he
goes off in all sorts of tangents. In all fairness, though, that book is
baffling regardless of its structure! However, with Sunnyside Gold uses structure to give the book a novelty; in this
case a cinema program.
Film is something that
I have a passionate interest in and if a book ties into and emulates the medium
of film then it is a book that I am going to want to invest my attention in. With
Sunnyside I am enjoying the various
nods to classical Hollywood and of its famous figures who keep popping up; Douglas Fairbanks
made his introduction in the most recent chapter.
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| Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin |
I am only in the third
section of Sunnyside, the two reel comedy part, and as yet I can not see how
the structure helps to reinforce the overall narrative. It may be that the
structure of Sunnyside isn’t there to reinforce the narrative
and is just a novelty. While the structure potentially may not prove to be
vital to the overall plot, it will not dissuade me from reading it as it’s
referencing the art form and industry that I love.
Therefore, does problem
lay with Gold’s prose style?
Prose Style
Getting into sync with the writers’ prose style was the problem I had
with The IPCRESS File, The Sleeper Awakes, Doctor Whom and Tristram
Shandy. With The ICRESS File I found
the stream of consciousness style a strain to follow, The Sleeper Awakes had a very cold, scientific presentation that
made the prose come across as boring, Doctor
Whom was just baffling and Tristram
Shandy…well, let's not even get me started!
However, with Carter and Sunnyside I could follow the prose, but
I think Gold drowns out all of his action with too much description:
In the Colorado Rockies, at the Grand
Imperial Hotel, which had indeed look imperial in its mining days, the manager
uncorked the intercom tube that, in theory, addressed all public areas – in practice,
it worked about as well as stretching two tin cans along a length of string –
and called, in a voice whose transposition along the ether made it shimmer like
a mirage, ‘Will Charlie Chaplin please come to the lobby?”
(Sunnyside, pg. 11)
Not a lot happens in that extract – the manager speaks into the intercom
and asks Chaplin to come to the lobby – however, the first time I read it I
missed that piece of action altogether, because my mind was focusing in more on
the description of the intercom. Therefore, the main problem I have with Gold’s prose is I tend to miss the beats of the action in the plot. As Gold's use of vivid description is relentless, in both Carter and Sunnyside, I think this is the reason why I have always felt lost and out of sync when reading either book.
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| Glen David Gold |
Saying this, though, it would be unfair to lay the blame fully on Gold;
while he might be accused of using too much description he does, however, have a very rich and intricate prose style. Therefore, I think there is one more factor
that I still need to consider.
A Lazy Reader?
When I say a lazy reader, I don’t mean that I rarely ever read; rather I
am referring to how I may not give a text the amount of attention that it
deserves. I have noticed this with the set reading I have to read for my Film
Studies module, in that, I don’t always pick up what the writer is trying to tell me.
Likewise, I have also noticed it when workshopping others' work in my writing module - I tend to only be able give them a couple of very vague pointers, because I don't read their work close
enough.
This is something that I find very frustrating; especially when it means that I have to read something four or five times just to fully articulate what it is trying to tell me! Really, then, I need to change my reading habits.
The Eager Reader
I think that reading something like Sunnyside
will help me improve in this respect, because only by getting in to the habit of reading
texts that are rich and intricate am I going to train my mind to automatically read more closely into their writing and the ideas they are conveying.
I think it would also be a huge insult to Glen David Gold not to not finish
a book that, in terms of subject matter and structure, he has unintentionally
catered for me to be interested in.
Therefore, I am going to force myself to finish this book and I will endeavour to enjoy it! Then, when I have finished it, I will write
another post reflecting on the book as a whole. Who knows, reading Sunnyside it may even propel me to finally finish Carter and the other members of the gave-up-on shelf...
