Book- A Glance Away

A Glance Away by John Edgar Wideman was not a book I was at all engaged in, or liked very much. It was a book whose characters I cared not at all about, and actually found them pretty pathetic. It is a book that came out of the 60s and 70s, and though I like those eras, some of the literature featuring characters that cannot communicate or change and who make their own damn lives miserable just leaves me cold.

This book features two characters, Eddie, who I have a bit more sympathy for, is a young black man back to his urban home from a rehab stint in the South. And while I could be OK with Eddie being an addict, his inability to deal with an overbearing mother, or even have the slightest ability to say one word that would make the situation better, just evokes nothing but contempt and derision from me, especially as he knows how he could make this situation and his life better.

The other character is Robert, a middle-aged queen, a professor who has devolved into alcoholism and pretended literary aspirations. Really he does not write at all, is scared to go into his classroom and feels like life has taken a dump on him. Guess what Robert, THAT is life! Get over yourself and your little petty difficulties...they are not that overwhelming! They can be pretty easily solved, at least many of them. But he is just wallowing in self-pity for supposed injustices.

There is a bit of plot where these two meet, but most of the book is examining the two psyches of the men. And quite frankly, neither psyche in very interesting. I am glad it was a short book.