The Letter Left to Me (Magill Book Reviews)

At a glance:

This first-person, stream-of-consciousness story employs a letter discovered just days before a father’s funeral as the catalyst for the son’s exploration of his own identity. Although the reader understands that the letter offers little more than the standard wisdom of a parent admonishing his child to appreciate his inheritance of good health and an advanced education, it is the words between the lines that count.

“I could tell he was asking of me something in his absence,” thinks the son. Later the son adds that his father’s epistle acts as a curious form of insurance, as an assurance of immortality. “My father was survived by’ me, he left me to them,” thinks the son, referring to his family members and the copies they carried of his gift.

Joseph McElroy’s deceptively simple plot, constructed of multidimensional strata as complex as the human brain, duplicates every individual’s struggle to derive meaning from feelings of existential turmoil. In the end, the son states that he will answer the letter. He says that although he cannot, he will. It is his affirmation of Everyman’s resolution to make peace with human purpose by transcending the trivial nature of human events.

Sources for Further Study

Booklist. LXXXV, October 15, 1988, p. 364.

Kirkus Reviews. LVI, August 15, 1988, p. 1184.

Library Journal. CXIII, November 1, 1988, p. 109.

The New Republic. CXCIX, October 17, 1988, p. 46.

The New York Times Book Review. XCIII, October 9, 1988, p. 7.

Publishers Weekly. CCXXXIV, August 26, 1988, p. 77.

The Washington Post Book World. XVIII, October 30, 1988, p. 5.