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PARTISAN REVIEW
its putative etymological method will be disturbing
to
humanists
who continue, one way or another, to derive sustenance from
philologists' achievements in mapping the history of language
and literature alike.
If
Aarsleff is right in what he has
to
say about
philology, he may have identified the worm in the apple of
contemporary humanistic studies. And that alone would be more
than enough to warrant giving his ideas serious consideration.
HAYDEN WHITE
,
LA GRANDE POESIE DE LA VIE
OH WHAT A PARADISE IT SEEMS.
By
John Cheever. Alfred A. Knopf.
$10.00.
The title says it all : 0
h What a Paradise
It
Seems
is a
work whose wistful sense of beauty colors its tone, symbols, and
central character. Moreover, John Cheever's recent death endows
the book with the added poignancy of a " Last Thing. " Draped
with the solemn mantle offinality,
Oh What a Paradise
manages
to hold up under the strain; the book is true to the integrity of its
mood, and this is an achievement, since in certain ways the
novella tends to split in two.
At its center, structurally and thematically, is the pollution
of a small pond in a " little village by the waterfall where the mill,
so many years ago, used to produce gingham." In the foreground
is an assortment of characters and incidents all somehow connected
with the pond's fate but presented as crudely as cartoons.
Women
Brawl in Supermarket; Baby Misplaced on Highway Returned to
Parents; Household Head Shoots Family Dog; Environmentalist
Hit and Run Victim After Pollution Hearing; Poisoned Family in
Satisfactory Condition; Polluted Pond Reclaimed-these
headlines
(all might be in the book; one is) show the tale's blend of the time–
ly-notably the pollution theme-and timeless. The timeless
battle of good and evil is presented in terms that suggest late
Shakespearean romance, as reunion and restoration follow fearful
loss. And not only Shakespeare glimmers as a source. "When he
