132
REUBEN A. BROWER
drawing the normal conclusions from them, to destroy the
chain
of
in–
ductive reasoning from phenomena. Such, even more radically, is the
central concern of many of the stories in
La Fievre,
the collection
Le
Clezio published last year, where, for example, the dislocation of the
universe produced by the sensation of toothache is elaborated with a
delirious exactitude.
The stories of
La
Fievre
frequently strike one as mere exercises
in
the rendering of sensation, 'and parts of
The Interrogation
give the same
effect. Le Clezio never seems insincere, or merely fashionable, or silly,
but he is often weighty, boring, and pretentious. His novel, despite its
greater commitment to human concerns and its greater density of life,
is as a whole less compelling than Robbe-Grillet's best performances.
The Interrogation
is not the masterpiece it has been proclaimed, but
something better well might come from its author: the most hopeful
thing about
Le
Glezio-as the different approaches tried in
La Fievre
indicate---is that he has not yet found a "manner," and may be expected
to continue experimenting.
Peter Brooks
MYTH MAKING
A NATURAL PERSPECTIVE: The Development of Shakespearean Comedy
and Romonee. By Northrop Frye. Columbio University Press. $3.75.
Northrop Frye is a formidable critic for a reviewer
to
present,
let alone disagree with. He is formidable in more than one respect:
in
the range of his reading in English and the Classical literatures, in his
detailed and ready knowledge of Shakespeare's comedies (which most of
us find much more elusive than the tragedies), in the multiple "struc–
tures" he invents, and
in
the masterly strategy with which he disarms
criticism. In
A Natural Perspective,
as in the
Anatomy of Criticism,
Frye astutely warns us in advance that he is doing one kind of thing
and not another, that he is exploring the structure of the comedies and
of comedy in general, not offering detailed interpretations of single
plays.
If
the reader nevertheless feels uncomfortable, he must agree
ruefully that his objections are out of order, at least for the duration
of the argument.
There are signs in
A Natural Perspective
of another and a less awe–
some figure, a humane teacher and sensible reader, who will take time
for an amusing digression:
