The World of Brady Udall - Essay Example

English 101 THE WORLD OF BRADY UDALL When you get acquaintance with Brady Udall’s works, you soon realize he’s an out of the ordinary, a necessary condition which allows standing out against the background of popular literature. Though the topics he chose are not supposed to be pioneering or particularly unusual, his novels are attractive and exciting in a special way. Plunging into the world of Brady Udall is always an adventure of a lifetime, an unforgettable one. Brady Udall himself expresses his for how and why he writes as following: “Fiction, at its core, is an emotional art. That’s what it does best. I write for the emotional experience of it, for me as the writer and for the reader” (Toffoli, 2010). It’s a well-known fact that Udall’s works are greatly influenced by R.Bass, B.Hannah and M.Twain, which is to say, by representatives of both Eastern and Western schools of writing. It has already been a tradition that Udall is frequently compared to John Winslow Irwing for the reason of some curious common writing peculiarities. That is exactly the fact which contributes to the striking singularity of his works. Udall’s last world-renowned novel “The Lonely Polygamist” is beyond no doubt a completely unorthodox one. He tells us a story that is constantly unsettling our expectations, heightening both emotions, having the sour and the sweet simultaneously, being written in extremely unconventional naturalistic style, a truly fascinating and thrilling formula. “ANIMALS REPRESENT THINGS, I SUPPOSE” (Owens 2010) Another rate unorthodox method Udall tends to use is animal reflection. In all he writes, Udall tends to use animals in some way or another. This is how animals appear in Udall’s works; there may be a protagonist with a pet vulture, for instance. This might appear either in symbolic way, or, typical of Udall’ style, in a funny one. Udall just tends not to look at animals in the same way the reader looks at humans. “They can accept and absorb our hopes and fears in a way that humans cant” (Owens, 2010). “ONE OF THE THINGS ABOUT WRITING IS THAT YOU HAVE TO HAVE TIME TO DO IT” (Toffoli 2010) As known, Brady Udall attended the Iowa Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa. He spent two years there before writing his very first collection of short stories. Udall himself thinks that only two conditions must be provided in order for anyone to become a good writer: the time and the means to write. Interesting to admit: while talking about advices for aspiring writers he notes “Don’t worry what your mother, your classmate, your neighbor, your spouse, or anyone else thinks about what you write”, which sounds rather funny compared to what he says in “He Becomes Deeply and Famously Drunk”: “…this is exactly what I’m talking about. I cant even take a shower without somebody having an opinion about it”(Udall 1997). Sometimes things he writes are not only candid and frank, they are truly naked and undisguised: “This morning Richard woke me up at five a.m. the way he does every morning, by shouting right in my ear, Come to, you candy son of a b*!” (“He Becomes Deeply and Famously Drunk” by Udall, 1997). “TO ME, A BOOK WITH A COMIC SENSE TO IT IS WHAT I WANT TO WRITE” (Owens 2010) In one of his interviews Brady admits that his major goal while writing a novel is to place comedy and tragedy as close as possible, which should create that volume of energy and tension the author strives for. Udall is sure to believe a book can’t just be all dark notes. Some critics even suggest Udall being as a contemporary successor to the black humorists of the past years: “…three men sitting on a porch, three men with three dead wives. Oh, it s sad fking world” (“Snake” by Udall, 1997). “...FAMILIES ARE FOREVER, AND WONDERED IF THE SLOGAN WAS MEANT AS A PROMISE OR A THREAT” (Udall 2010). Generally, Udall makes the reader us question himself about fundamental assumptions about the family as phenomenon, go over again our idea of what it exactly means to be human, and, which is more important, what is exactly means to be a human in a family. Udall finely uses a stylistic device of flashback, when he describes Beverly and Golden’s wedding day and a true test to the Richards to come after that. Udall helps us revising our general understanding of what marriage actually looks like. He unfolds everything lying beyond the common labels or habitual laws of life. In fact everything what happened in Richards family one may describe with words from “Midnight Raid”: “honest, smash-mouth affair based on past indiscretions and betrayals” (Udall, 1997). “WHEN IT COMES TO LOVE, EVERYONE IS A LIAR” (Udall, 2010). Lies and trickery appear as something new and updated as compared to lies and trickery we have all accustomed to. For Golden Richards his lies which conceal themselves behind polygamist behavior is a kind of escape. Udall paints an empathetic portrait of a puzzled and tired-out Golden. It is quite important to admit that he neither justifies nor condemns Golden’s actions. Udall doesnt judge his characters; in his opinion Golden as well as Rusty deserves sympathy even from the author himself. Still, let us acknowledge that truth and lies are not among the primary issues the author operates with. “GOOD ART WILL ALWAYS BE COMPLEX, CONTRADICTORY, AND WILL RESIST EASY JUDGMENT” (Owens 2010). Udall opens “The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint” with an awful yet bizarre incident: 7-year-old Edgar has inconveniently placed his head under the mailmans jeep with the mailman inside talking to Edgar’s mother. The mailman flees the town soon after and Edgar gets to realize, that his main purpose in life is to find the mailman and tell him he’s still alive and that incident had no tragic aftermath. Seeming danger of mixing tragedy and comic issues is here nothing but a distinctive feature of Udall’s writing; it is a complex contradictory art he was talking about. “IF I COULD TELL YOU ONLY ONE THING ABOUT MY LIFE IT WOULD BE THIS: WHEN I WAS SEVEN YEARS OLD THE MAILMAN RAN OVER MY HEAD” (Udall, 2002). I’d like to cautiously compare “The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint” to any other prominent work putting life of an individual in a limelight. This is not simply a novel; this is chronicle of the hopes and heartbreaks of Edgar Presley Mint, whose quest for the mailman having deep roots leads him to an unexpected home as pain and joy accompany him through a string of unseen life experiences. Udall himself admits that for a certain amount of time he “was foolish enough to believe it (story) was mine. I was, after all, the one who was writing it, wasnt I?”. The author acknowledges that for a while he was happy to live under the illusion that the story he created and the characters he invented were under his control; in other words, it seemed like it was only Udall’s universe, but later on a funny thing got to happen as “Edgar started to go his own way. He began to defy me”. Instead of overcoming the odds and rising to great heights of fortune, Edgar starts to be fearful and confused and giving in to weakness every moment. It is clear Udall wanted Edgar to be a hero, probably even a typical one, but all his attempts to endow Mint with traits typical of a hero or make him do thing typical heroes usually do, eventually failed for the cause that Edgar is not hero as a matter of fact. He even may seem to be a thief of murderer. Edgar gets humiliated and kicking around, but eventually he survives. This survival proves to be a spiritual heroism by Edgar Mint. And it is in this way that the story becomes his. He does not take control of this story in the way of a hero, he just survives. To tell the truth, I personally found The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint and The Lonely Polygamist to be extremely well-written and enjoyable from aesthetic point of view, funny at times, which I found very suitable as the author uses aforementioned devices really well, while exploring topics of loneliness of soul, which is to say, isolation of an individual. As I said before, Udall doesnt tend to judge any of his characters in The Lonely Polygamist and despite the author isn’t present in the book himself, I was able to perceive his personal opinions, attitudes, visions, etc. However, I can say I didn’t like the ending, because the book being so pragmatic and that full of rational thoughts shouldn’t end like this. It is beyond no doubt that popularity the author gained is due to his extraordinary writing and character-building style. As for “The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint”, despite rather disappointing ending, this may serve as a good example of a classic literary fusion. I’m persuaded that every single reader of the novel would like to turn over the pages of the novel about adult Edgar. Despite the penetrating pain feeling and loneliness, Edgar’s character is pure. An important detail to acknowledge is that the book is rather easy and interesting to red. As far as uniqueness and talent are values in the world literature, Brady Udall is sure to save his place among the world genuine masters. Works cited Owens 2010. Owens, Jill. Brady Udall: The Powells.com Interview. Published on May 4, 2010. Web. 27 Nov. 2014. Toffoli 2014. Toffoli, Marissa B. Interview With Writer Brady Udall. Words With Writers, 2010. Web. 27 Nov. 2014 Udall 2007. Udall, Brady. Letting Loose the Hounds: Stories. W.W.Norton & Company. 1997. 193 pp. Udall 2002. Udall, Brady. The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint. Vintage, 2002. 423 pp. Udall 2010. Udall, Brady. The Lonely Polygamist. Norton, 2010. 602 pp. Read More