Dawn Powell: Novels 1930-1942 (Library of America)
by Dawn Powell

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Book Reviews of Dawn Powell: Novels 1930-1942 (Library of America)

Book Review: An author to meet
Summary: 5 Stars

The earlier works "Dance Night" and "Come Back to Sorrento", both of which have Midwestern small-town settings, have elements of Willa Cather, while the latter three, all New York satire, fall somewhere between Dorothy Parker and P.G. Woodhouse with punchy, sarcastic dialogue and vivid description. Like Woodhouse, Powell understands the humor of being anthropomorphic in describing inanimate objects.

The brief chronology at the end of the book, which I recommend readers unfamiliar with Powell read first, explains some of Powells returning motifs: absent parents, children farmed out to relatives, traveling salesmen, dysfunctional families and American class consciousness. She is masterful in presenting the "happily" part of the ending, but at the same time, registering misgivings about the "ever after."

"Dance Night", set in a generic Lamptown, is the story of Morry Abbot, a young man coming to maturity and sexual awareness. Powell sets this against the story of his dysfunctional parents, an absentee traveling salesman father and a mother who falls in love with the dance instructor. A whole set of fully-fleshed minor characters fill out the narrative.

In "Come Back to Sorrento", another small town narrative, Connie Benjamin's life changes when a new music teacher comes to teach at the school in Dell River. Connie, who has shown great promise as a singer, but who was restrained by her domineering grandfather who had raised her, has lived alone in her dream world for almost two decades. Professor Decker, who lives in his own artificial world, arrives and the two become fast friends. Although their pretensions, played out for before a spinster school teacher pass well into the realm of embarrassing, Powell deftly keeps them sympathetic simply by keeping the reader fully aware that these characters are lost in a world they only partly created.

Dennis Orphen, the hero of "Turn, Magic Wheel", a New York satire, has written a novelized book in which he satirizes a world-famous novelist, Andrew Callingham, having gleaned most of his information from Callingham's ex-wife, Effie. Dennis, an inveterate womanizer, has unbeknownst to himself, fallen in love with Effie and she with him.

The traveling salesman motif returns in "Angels on Toast", a story of the contrasting marital infidelities of Lou and Jay, who are continually on the road. Replete with wives, girlfriends, and at least one ex-wife, this is the fastest paced of the five novels in this volume.

"A Time to be Born", reportedly based on Clare Booth Luce, is the most complex of the five. Interspersed within the interwoven narratives of Amanda Evans and Vicky Haven are the workplace politics at Peabody Publications, the riotous family life of the McElroy's, (one of Vicky's colleague in the office) and a return of Dennis Orphen from "Turn, Magic Wheel", along with his writing and drinking buddy, Ken Saunders. Although Powell fully exploits her satiric wit in this novel, it does turn grim, especially towards the end.

These are all excellent reads and well worth the investment in this Library of America edition which has the same quality of their other publications. Library of America has also produced a second volume of Powell's works that include later novels.

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