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A review by reallivejim
The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford
4.75
I can’t think of a character in all of literature better drawn than Molly Fawcett.
In Kathryn Davis’s afterword, she delivers a spoiler-free succinctly excellent characterization of this novel that I couldn’t agree with more: “This is not a coming-of-age story. It is, if anything, a not-coming-of-age story. It is a story about the impossibility if growing up and the impossibility of remaining a child.”
Found this work bewilderingly affecting and brilliant. In truth, and a tiny bit in shame, I’ll admit that I’m only held back from going 5 full stars because I simply found too there to be too much interstitial material, and despite how fully I was entranced by the core momentum of the narrative and its characters, I too often felt a bit bored and bogged down by the stage dressing. At a brisk 230 pages with such utterly incredibly characterization, I think the writing itself could have avoided as often falling into this plodding vulnerability, but I’ll also admit that this subjective dislike of mine is very much in the canon of American western fiction, and perhaps the only thing preventing me from giving this a “good as it gets” mark is that that’s simply not my favorite type of writing.
In Kathryn Davis’s afterword, she delivers a spoiler-free succinctly excellent characterization of this novel that I couldn’t agree with more: “This is not a coming-of-age story. It is, if anything, a not-coming-of-age story. It is a story about the impossibility if growing up and the impossibility of remaining a child.”
Found this work bewilderingly affecting and brilliant. In truth, and a tiny bit in shame, I’ll admit that I’m only held back from going 5 full stars because I simply found too there to be too much interstitial material, and despite how fully I was entranced by the core momentum of the narrative and its characters, I too often felt a bit bored and bogged down by the stage dressing. At a brisk 230 pages with such utterly incredibly characterization, I think the writing itself could have avoided as often falling into this plodding vulnerability, but I’ll also admit that this subjective dislike of mine is very much in the canon of American western fiction, and perhaps the only thing preventing me from giving this a “good as it gets” mark is that that’s simply not my favorite type of writing.