This book is a collection of character sketches called “grotesques.” I wanted to read this book because it had a creative organization, with the character sketches loosely related; because it was about Ohio, where I’m from; and because it was about a time period that interests me, post civil war to early 1900s. I think I would have really liked to have read this book in high school, but now I can only give it mediocre marks.
Each character sketch is 2-10 pages long, and each sketch is mostly depressing. Of course, that is part of the theme of the book. Each person seems to have some desire to do something, and struggles to do it. Most of the desires relate to being loved and accepted. There are a lot of examples of people being inhumane and mean spirited, which I found difficult to read. It read like a demented soap opera. Psychology is a primary focus, and plots are thin.
That being said, there were some interesting passages. For example, the creepy doctor who later has an affair with the main character’s mother is one of the few who knows “the sweetness of the twisted apples.” These are apples that are not picked, but left on the tree and free for the taking. They are undesirable because they are twisted, but they are delicious because the sweetness gathers in the grotesque folds.
One of my favorite sections was “Loneliness.” It tells the story of an artist, Enoch Robinson. He left Winesburg and went to New York and hung out with other artists. He wanted to speak volumes but could never get the words to come out of his mouth right. “He did not want friends for the quite simple reason that no child wants friends.” He preferred to speak to the people in his mind, whom he could control and with whom he could be confident. He got married and got a job as a commercial artist to play the role of “citizen,” but he could not deal with that life and went back to New York to talk to his imaginary friends, and then ended up back in Winesburg. I enjoyed reading about this crazy artistic personality.
At the end of the book, after generations of disappointment, the main character leaves Winesburg. He is a hero who has finally found the courage to go after what he wants. Winesburg ends up representing repression and resulting inappropriate expression under the guise of normalcy.
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