270
PARTISAN REVIEW
most part, accepted. (Other characters do occasionall y give away their
unease. But the only mind we are allowed into, indeed trapped in, is
Eleanor's. )
The fast pace of this novel is remarkable. We memorize the name
of a "major" character and she or he promptly drops out of Eleanor's
life. The pace and seemingly random plotting indicate that Eleanor
does not structure her life, but flees any concrete awareness of life in
favor of transitory affairs and momentary ambitions. She does attempt
to slow down into respectability by marrying a man she does not love.
However, her new allegiance is
to
marriage and the role of suburban
housewife-not to her husband, who repays her by becoming a crazy
(and amusing) nemesis. She turns to literature not out of personal
commitment, but because literature is a glamorous way to (barely)
make a living for an educated nonperson. She lacks the imagination to
supply plot, character or milieu; but, when her father surprisingly
produces a novel, she can tailor it for the public and begin a long
collaboration with authors in her roles as publisher's reader, editor and
agent. Stead shows us what she thinks of both the
" Ii
terary" establish–
ment, and so-called good writing. Eleanor rewrites a short story
"twenty-three times, arranging it differently for each market." But the
story "grew simpler, clearer, more barren each time" as she applied her
rules of "Short sentences ... The everyday for the strange ... 'Ware
adjectives! ... no crotchets, no politics ... Simple relations." Elea–
nor's rules are antitheses of the free-form art Ms Stead has always
practiced. Eleanor is a transmitter of the given, not like Stead a cap–
turer of the unexpected within us. Against Eleanor we can best
conclude with Stead's description
(London Magazine,
Feb. 1970) of
how she herself writes:
I'm a psychological writer, and my drama is the drama of the person.
The start of a story is like a love affair, exaClly. It's like a stone hilling
you. You can't argue with il. I wait and wait for the drama to
develop. I watch the characters and the situation move and don't
interfere. I'm patienl. I'm lying low.
