October Light (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: John Gardner
- First Published: 1976
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Domestic realism
- Time of Work: Autumn, 1976, during the bicentennial of the American Revolution
- Setting: A farm outside Bennington, Vermont
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: 1970’s
- Locales: Bennington, VT
Characters Discussed
James Page, a stubbornly conservative, belligerently independent Vermont farmer, seventy-three years old. He is so antimodern that he destroys his sister’s television set, then locks her in her bedroom with a shotgun facing her door. Part of his anger comes from his son Richard’s suicide, which he takes to be a sign of weakness. Nor has he ever forgotten Uncle Ira, who shot himself. James considers himself a rugged descendant of Ethan Allen’s Green Mountain Boys. He is gripped by chronic constipation. When he almost causes his friend Ed Thomas’...
[The entire page is 1539 words long]
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