Salamanca, J(ack) R(ichard) (Vol. 15) - Joyce Carol Oates
JOYCE CAROL OATES
J. R. Salamanca's A Sea Change, though it is a conventional enough study of the disintegration of love and marriage, has a few moments of derangement as well. It moves along smoothly and conversationally, told in the first person by a young-old man, prematurely pedantic and smug, blighted by personal disappointment and yet not enlightened, not provoked into manhood by his suffering. It is the sign of our sophisticated times that even an ordinary love story can be told in so clever and complicated a style; though the style ultimately adds nothing to the story, and perhaps strains the reader's patience, it argues for a certain ironic intelligence that partly redeems the disappointing narrative itself.
A Sea Change is a Jamesian treatment of a love relationship, between Michael (who ages into shrill, exasperating coyness) and Margaret (whose character remains exasperatingly out of focus), the two of them so close, so mercilessly...
[The entire page is 342 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
Related Topics
