opinions & ViewsnSelling Darkness & BloodnPeter Collier: Downriver; Holt,nRinehart & Winston; New York.nby Edward J. WalshnIn this, an age of cultural brutalitynand obscenity, brutal and obscene literaturenbecomes numbingly routine, muchnlike the bleak rows of motion picturenmarquees along New York’s 42nd Streetnfrom Seventh Avenue to Times Square.nBut occasionally one display is so singularlynvile that it forges new definitionsnof crudity—especially if it pretends atndignity or intelligence. The same lawnis proven true with the publication ofnPeter Collier’s Downriver.nThis is a book that evokes genuinenrage at its obsession with all that isnbase and ignoble. Then, too, it evokesnexpressions of confusion, wonderment,nand finally, deep depression that thenhouse of Holt, Rinehart & Winston hasnfound a fathomable reason for publishingnit. Even after plumbing the depthsnof Collier’s preoccupation with rape,nmasturbation, drunkenness, orgiasticnsex, and ritual murder, his story is sonscreamingly dull that one must trulynmuse on Holt’s marketing sense. Fornthat, a clue may be the critical commentarynon the dust cover, which is ail acclaimnfor Collier’s other book, a worknof nonfiction entitled The Rockefellers,nwritten in collaboration with someonenelse, who I admit to not knowing. Forna reminder that many a mediocre writernhas gained lifelong but undeserved accessnto publishing circles with a firstnpublishable work, we may recallnHemingway’s observation that oncegoodnwriters must keep up their establishmentsnand their wives, and for thatnthey write slop.nCollier’s protagonist is Cabell Hart,nMr. Walsh, an officer of the U.S. IndustrialnCouncil, is a student of thencontemporary literary scene.n6nChronicles of Culturenthe descendant of a good man gone bad.nHis grandfather killed a respected citizennin Deadwood, South Dakota backnin cowboy days, and the grandfather’sncurse of enduring shame is passed downnto our modern day Cabell. The sordidnessnof the murder pervades the livesnof his family, who die terrible deaths.nThe book opens with the gruesome rapemurdernof his sister, whose young son,ndone cheated me!”noo the book is about vengeance; total,nsavage, obscene. There is some thematicnpoking at the historic legacy of thenAmerican West, which Collier sees asnnothing but a brutal war for survival.nOne hopes in vain for the appropriatentone of pathos and poignancy whennHart’s dying father makes a last tripn•’This unusually fiiv lir’-t novel . . . tells a strcMig. nun ins; f.muK
January 1975April 21, 2022By The Archive
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