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PARTISAN REVIEW
appear pat, a fading tintype of rebellion. But the denouement is inte–
gral to the novel's dramatic and moral ironies . Theo's fate is doubly
appropriate , for beneath her idealism lies a chaos of inner violence.
Fantasies of violence merge with sexual fear as Theo refuses to rent
rooms to masculine men because "you never knew when you would
get one with an extra chromosome . .. the one that turned them vio–
lent and criminal." Learning that Marybeth is a renegade, Theo
assumes that the girl must be "some kind of dangerous criminal- a
murderess, I suppose . A murder is the kind of thing I would be most
likely to remember." Most damning is Theo's inability to love . Faced
with a human crisis when the bomber's child disappears , she col–
lapses. Her response to Marybeth's plight is excitement, not com–
passion . Rapt in the titillation of terror , "Theo seemed to glow with
life , almost joy." For Theo, thus, character is destiny. But retribu–
tion does not resolve the larger issue of meaning. For Johnson, the
problem is not the structure of catastrophe but the clarity of her
attitude toward Theo . While the character's dualism emerges from
the novel's evidence , her articulate perceptions seem often to render
the authorial view. In consequence, the portrayal of Theo is more
equivocal than complex, the intention behind it ultimately
ambiguous .
Johnson's sense of comic incongruity illuminates the tragedy of
her world; the richness of her invention mitigates its horror. And
there is a more direct affirmation . To the insecurity and terror of
modern life, Johnson opposes the moral energies of the private indi–
vidual, decent , imperfect, and vulnerable . Marybeth cares about
her fellow residents and , liberated from the inhumanity of cate–
gories, "thinks of them as them ." Ouida, without Theo's narcissistic
voyeurism, is "heavy-hearted to think of trouble for her pretty
American friend ." In the poignancy of Marybeth's sensitivity and
need, in the luminous portrait of Ouida, Johnson implies such
redemption as may exist. There is no ascending spiral curve, and the
retreat to privatism may engender a Mr. Griggs . But Marybeth's
kindness remains, and Ouida projects without cease the energy of
endurance. Johnson wrote recently:
"If
it is true ... that we know
ourselves through the recognition of others , with whom we share the
condition of humans, then prose fiction can do the best that can be
done for us to console and affirm ." It is an apt description of her
achievement in
Ly ing Low.
BARBARA ROSECRANCE
