The Feud, Thomas Berger

The Feud by Thomas Berger is a comedy written by the same man who gave us "Little Big Man."  This book looks at two feuding towns in 1930s America.  This book was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Started:  4/14/2011
Completed:  4/28/2011
Recommendation:  It is difficult to recommend this book.  It isn't fun.  It is close to truth.  Close to painful truth.
Recommended By:  An extended family vacation led to the creation of a book discussion group and this was the #1 book voted upon by family members for us all to read.
Review: So what to say about this book?  This is the mountain out of a mole hill writ hick.  So a minor disagreement and a line of constantly topping intolerance leads to a modern comedy of errors.  The middle of the book is a mild twist in so far as simple character flaws start becoming serious downfalls.  Characters start taking a beating...individuals start falling apart in every way imaginable.  Some new characters who, themselves, represent the fulfillment of poor decisions appear, splatter, and slip from the pages.

The book does not end with a belly laugh, a chuckle, or even a wry grin.  It is as harsh, greasy, and oddly, stale and sweet as the crumbs in the bottom of an empty bag of donuts.  Like the bag is empty, sadly the story is as well.  While you've learned about these people and, in some ways, started to sympathize with them, in virtually every case they are repugnant at a base level.  I didn't come away from this book wondering what happened to them or with any desire to hear more of their sordid lives.  I had a very hard time laughing at the ridiculous behavior after the consequences turned so dire.  Perhaps that is a good thing.

The Feud is edgy.  Not the way "edgy" is viewed today.  It is not raunchy.  It is not foul.  The Feud looks at people as they horribly are.  It unashamedly offers up the devastating consequences of our own flaws drawn out upon the stage of destitute poverty,  The consequences of small flaws--big sins--are even worse when put under the vise of financial stress.

I'm not convinced you learn anything by reading this book.  It is mildly entertaining and unabashedly forthright, but it uses the comedic tool of drawing everything to extremes--the sheriffs don't disagree, they actively wish to hurt one another; the sex abusers aren't ashamed of themselves; the self-interest knows no bounds; and the doormats stand before cavernous spaces.  Since everything is so extreme it is impossible to view the book in anything but the harsh black and white light that bursts from caricature.  It feels like the humor can only be enjoyed by those how titter uncontrollably as the three year old throws a baseball into his father's scrotum.  The humor seems painfully reminiscent of a Peeping Tom's look at squalid indignity.

Of course, the worst part is that I'm writing this two days after the rest of the review.  Maybe the quality of this book shows in that I'm still stewing about it.  Maybe I felt like a Peeping Tom because the author had taken the trouble of making these comically distorted characters seem real.  I'm still mad at some for their behavior, sorry about the sad situation for others, and worried for the poor decisions that characterized them all.  No, I don't want to read more about them, I'd just as soon forget them.  But somewhere, somehow, the author has managed to make them "real" enough to have woven themselves into my thoughts occasionally bumping against real people with real problems.  And that, my dear reader, may be why this book was nominated for a Pulitzer.  Still and all, it is annoying.