The World of Brady Udall - Essay Example

English 101 THE WORLD OF BRADY UDALL Brady Udall is an American novelist, who happens to come from a political family. 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 real writer: the time and the means to write. When you get acquaintance with Brady Udall’s works, you soon realize he’s an author out of the ordinary, a necessary condition which allows standing out against the background of modern 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. In one of the interviews, Brady Udall is asked “why did you agree to take non-fiction article that first appeared in Esquire 1998, that was first titled ‘BIG LOVE’ and make it into a novel” his response was that, his work is not inspired by Esquire piece, but rather his high polygamy connection. He happens to come from a polygamous family, and that is what motivated his writings “My great- great grandfather, David King Udall, was a polygamist. His second wife, Ida Hunt Udall, was my great grandmother. So it’s pretty straightforward: if polygamy didn’t exist, neither would I. It seemed only…” 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 characteristic writing peculiarities and use of story lines in their writings In his defense he says that, ’love is not a finite thing’ and that one does not choose who enters and lives the heart. That is exactly the fact which contributes to the striking singularity of his works. In some of Udall’s renowned novels a writing style which undoubtedly and entirely unorthodox. He tells us stories that are 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. Udall also tends to use this style in animal reflection. In all his writings, Udall tends to use animals in one 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 a symbolic way or, typical of Udall’ style, in a funny one. Udall just tends not to look at animals, in the same way, and the reader looks at humans. It is said that animals can accept and absorb our hopes and fears in a way that humans can’t. In the story ‘Midnight raid’ Udall talks about the goat the character took to his son as a pet, he says “this cute little pet of his was not an innocent baby, but an adult with an active sex drive, fully developed gonads and the whole bit…” About dog the character met, he says “He doesn’t know whether to raise hell or to make friends with me…” This is an interesting use of unorthodox in reference to animal reflection. Brady Udall’s stories always transverse a geography of lives that have been fragmented, love that has been lost and getting satisfaction from revenge. Udall gets to inject his stories together with characters with equal display. This might be when writing about darkness and humor, and everything else. Udall moves the reader to familiar destinations to perplexing destinations. Udall has a sense of fine comic which sustains men and women in their efforts to cope with the writings. As you read, the moments plunge you, because this velocity if found in these stories; as they take off, gravel spray. In the ‘midnight raid’ story, Udall explains that as a family everyone fears tragedy. The way we deal with those disasters depends on experiences we had in life, be it social or cultural experiences. In this short story, Udall creates images which are compelling and pulls the reader closer to the story. A story of love, loss and sorrow makes the reader to be emotionally attached. Descriptive work of Udall makes the reader mesmerize all the way through his stories. There is also economical and efficient use of words throughout the stories. Generally, Udall makes the reader 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 precisely means to be a human in a family. Udall finely uses a stylistic device of the flashback, when he describes how Ada died when trying to fend for her family. Udall also helps in us revising our general understanding of what marriage actually looks like. He unfolds everything lying beyond the conventional labels or habitual laws of life. This way Udall once again proves his talent for exquisite prose. With a bit of humor, he draws the portrait of an American family, complete with heartbreak and love. Brady Udall usually writes dialogue with astonishing creativity that captures the reader’s attention throughout. In the story ‘Snake’ he describes one instance of dialogue- “There’s some kind of police with his car broke up the road. He’s doing a lot of cussing at his car.” “You help him?” “No no police I didn’t” “You hear what I said about the snake?’ He does this with assumedly the characters exact wording without modifying them to sound as better English. He likes to use first persons when writing his novels although the novels at some point shifts from the first person to the third person in the accounts, but still the readers are presented with bravely that seeks to find a place in the world. It, therefore, presents itself as a book full of humor, if not talking about miracle. In one of the instances Udall writes,’ one thing about my life is that, when I was seven years old, I was run over by a mailman’ This short story is typical story telling miracle. It is one that takes the reader to reminisce about things they have gone through in life. The story line is real, such that it takes the reader to real-time events. The author acknowledges that for a while he was more than impressed to live and know 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. Udall also happens to embrace the style of vivid description a lot. He describes some of his characters in ways that make the readers of the stories to see the characters themselves in their minds. For example, in the story ‘He becomes deeply and famously drunk’ Udall uses his writer’s freedom to describe the cowboy and the sort of work the cowboy performed, “I am cowboy…I herd cows, I vaccinate, brand, dehorn and castrate cows, more often than not I smell exactly like a cow…” This phrase opens the story and the reader’s attention is captured as he would like to know the storyline behind the cowboy. The same style is used in the same book- when describing the character’s father fight with Calfred “…When my father stepped out into the cold night air, ready to whip Calfred’s sorry ass and be done with it, Calfred brought down the jack full force, right on top of his head. My father went down, stayed face down in the gravel for a minute or so, dead still, and suddenly got up punching with everything he had, as if the blow not only sobered him up but also lit a fire under his ass…sheriff’s deputies came and arrested them both.” This style of writing makes the story sound more of a movie than just a novel as the reader can picture in his mind the whole action taking place in the story without getting bored. The narrator of the ‘snake’ is an old man who is ready to compete. He uses his knowledge old knowledge to counteract anyone who seems to cross his line. The characters involved search for some compassion, and they all end with letting loose, a relaxation that is chilling. Udall’s state of owing to his contemporary character is apparent. Most of the narrators tend to share Rick Bass’s steadfast devotion to the passion, other characters have a room for dialogue to face the various crisis. Nearly all narrators have a strong attachment to the rich language that almost becomes ironical. For example, one story is titled; ‘He becomes deeply and famously drunk’. Udall is his own man in the stories, the occasional unnamable faces of the characters is intimately related to the story. To tell the truth, I personally find the story, ‘He becomes deeply and famously drunk’ 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. It is therefore no doubt that the popularity the author gained is due to his extraordinary writing and character-building style. 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, Jill. : The Powells.com Interview. May 4, 2010. Web. 27 Nov. 2014. Toffoli, Marissa B. Interview With Writer Brady Udall. Words with Writers. 2010. Web. 27 http://wordswithwriters.com/2010/05/27/brady-udall/ Udall, Brady. The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint. Vintage, 2002. 423 pp. Udall, Brady. The Lonely Polygamist. Norton, 2010. 602 pp. https://www.bookbrowse.com/books_by_author/index.cfm/author_number/792/brady-udall#books Read More