I have long put off writing about some of my favorite novels as I felt I could never do them justice. However, I have realized that this is MY blog and I can always revisit/edit to my heart's content so why not take a stab at some of the books I truly love?
Lord of the Barnyard is a dense read but so much happens from page to page that I always feel that I've read a chapter in that single side of a sheet. Egolf just has a way with his descriptions (of people, place and time) that is timeless. Unfortunately, we got 3 books from him before he checked out, but what we got was gold. This is his first and best in my opinion and will be in my top 5 books for as long as I can imagine.
The main character, john Kaltenbruner, is one of the best misanthropes of all time. From his leather miner's jacket to his driving a tractor to school to his revenge on an entire way of life, he embodies the anger and rage we all feel at some point in our lives because we have no control over our situations.
John is by no means an innocent. He has massive failures as a human being. He doesn't relate to others. Lacks empathy. He has almost no social grace if any. Yet, as a character, you can feel sympathetic towards him. Many critics have compared this to Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces, and in some ways it compares. But something about John reminds me of angry youth that Reilly never embodies. Yes, they are both anti-heroes and both authors checked out of the scene early in their careers. There are similarities. But what is missing in that comparison is that Ignatious J. Reilly is slothful and really dislikable. With John, you don't have to like him to understand him. Plus, Ignatious has the luxury of education and a certain amount of comfort in his upbringing. John is missing that in spades. He is a lovable loser (as are most of Egolf's lovable losers, which is why I love his books).
Do yourself a favor. Go to your local used bookstore and buy this novel or get on Ebay or go to Amazon and dig into this book. Once you are done with it, feel free to post comments or send me an email about what you thought. I would love to go into more detail and discussion. I reread this book every year to 18 months I love it so much. Do yourself a favor and read it once. Thanks dear reader, and there are more faves to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment