N only P: terrible parents/: "The Runaway Soul" (Harold Brodkey)

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

"Step(-) counts!" (Curb your Enthusiasm)

Neither thin nor easy to read, but one of the best novels I know:

THE RUNAWAY SOUL -- Harold Brodkey

Tester?

" ... Boy, it's dangerous to be somebody's kid. Isn't it DANGEROUS to be
his child? Anybody's child?
And not just because of him but because of what people do to you because
of him ... Or Mom ... Mom and Dad do things to me because of other people
--- it is an odd light in their actions. (...) My dad had images for feelings.
YOU'RE AS NICE AS A DOG AND TWICE AS CLEAN. And: I DEFENDED YOU YESTERDAY.
BETH SAID YOU WASN'T FIT TO SLEEP WITH HOGS AND I SAID YOU WAS. And: YOU'RE
THE ONE I WANT TO KISS: COME ON OVER HERE AND BE MY MERRY SUNSHINE FOR A
CHANGE ... AND DON'T ASK ME FOR ANY CHANGE; KEEP YOUR GREED TO YOURSELF,
TONIGHT, DARLINGKINS ... (...) Anyway, am I their son? Sometimes, in the
years when it was agreed I was startlingly ugly, MY GOD, LOOK AT YOU, either
of my parents might say; but so might even kind strangers say it: I would 
pray at night, KEEP ME UGLY, DEAR GOD: MAKE ME A LITTLE UGLIER, IF IT'S ALL
RIGHT WITH YOU --- it was for the freedom, the semi-invisibility of it ---
but they, my parents, my parents by adoption, long for me to be a KNOCKOUT,
A KILLER-DILLER --- as in the old days (when I was little). YOU'RE SUCH A 
BEAUTY ... they say to me ...
IT WAS A MORE INTERESTING STORY FOR ME, Momma said.
IT MAKES ME NO NEVER MIND, Daddy said --- but he didn't mean it ..." 
 
And here comes a young lady reading out a whole page for you:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U154pxY4jxI
 
But as I said: It does not only have 835 pages, it's also emotionally 
challenging. But so is your ex-student's project in general, so ... Since
it takes place in comparative literature, s/he may also have a look at 
Uwe Johnson's "Jahrestage" (which I'm currently reading for the third time)
where the protagonist, Gesine Cresspahl, has a half-crazy mother who
didn't do her right. Both novels I can whole-heartedly recommend --
 
 
With kind regards,
Kai Frederik
 
PS: Right, Johnson's "Jahrestage" (the original) is not exactly "thinner",
too. Sorry, I have a thing for Big Books ... 
 

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> Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 17:44:21 +0200
> Subject: N only P: terrible parents
> From: miksaapja at gmail.com
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>
> An ex-student of mine is writing his PhD thesis in comparative
> literature, of course out of time like anybody in that situation, and
> asked me about "dominant, terrible, possibly murderous mothers and
> fathers in contemporary American literature." I recommended Nalline
> and Greta but he said GR is too heavy (literally). Any spectacular
> candidates from thinner books?
>
> Thx,
> Janos