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The Fugitive'
Novel reflects concern for man
books
Bv GI.KNN AKREKY
and TEI) WADLEY
Marion Montgomery's latest
novel. Fugitive. (373 pages.
Harper & Row, $8.95), shares
with his other fiction, poetry,
and criticism a concern for the
development of man's mind in
the world around him. An age
in which we each see ourselves
detached from all else leaves
only cowardice, inadequacy,
and loneliness as bases for our
outside reelationships.
Montgomery explores the
abstraction and selfish intro
spection which worsen our
plight as he points toward a
classic and liberal conjunction
of mind and reality. Perception
and art are rooted in the
intuitive side of our nature so
that true contact with reality
must be through nonverbal
feeling and understanding.
The novel tells the story of
Walter Mason, a wealthy wri
ter of country songs who is a
fugitive from the intellectu-
alized literature, detachment,
and cynicism about life he had
felt as an English graduate
student at Vanderbilt, although
Vanderbilt fathered the “Fugi
tive" group of southern writers
on whose ideas the book cen
ters.
In tiny Weaverton, Georgia
(remarkably similar to Lex
ington), he seeks to contact the
vital functions of humanity,
such as farming and commu
nity, in a manner reminiscent
of Paul Goodman. Like Good
man, he flaws his good idea
with good intentions, mixing
ignorance and presumption
(trying to improve the local
cattle). Hugh Akers, country
sage, sees enough reserve and
humor in Walt to work with
him. Education proceeds with
humiliation and exhaustion
leading to community.
Weaverton fills the basis for
a human community. It ac
cepts what must be accepted,
birth, death, emotion, work,
time and chance that happen
to us all, yet it accords each
member the development of
his individual character and
place.
The characters are admira
bly drawn Miss Mary is a
spinster married to her fami
ly's locally significant past
whose idealism and thorough-
goingness are partially ratified
by the book. Jack Hardy,
proprietor of a ''drugstore”
selling only sundries, is a rude,
though reluctant, misanthrope
too weak to stop suffering old
loss
C M Haggard, the narrator,
is a scholar and Walt's prede
cessor by thirty years Com
munity acceptance has eluded
him because he cannot bridge
the space between seeing what
he should do and doing it. He is
like Prufrock His role is
crucial because he filters the
narrative to find or fit his own
failures.
In our opinion, the novel
should be taken entirely from
his point of view, despite the
accounts of facts he could not
know and the misapprehen
sions of other reviewers Per
haps he filled in his knowledge
with invention. His point of
view is totally separate from
the story in which he hardly
figures as a character Yet in
many ways the novel is his
story, a description of the
method and tragedy of his
nated isolation
Much of the book is painfully
philosophical because of Hag
gard's relentless mental ab
straction. He worries the pro
blems of language, of determi
nism and mindlessness, and of
the premises of life (birth,
death, etc ). The book deals
sympathetically with his mal
adjustment Montgomery
knows that language and espe
daily a direct line of thought
assume an unjustified hold on
reality, a knowledge reflected
in the book. He too has
explored the libertarian
swamp
The novel’s brilliance is its
expression of the individual-
community message in close
opposition to these modern
problems. Further, a novel is
language, by definition an ab
straction, but this one deals
essentially with more basic
understanding not so corrupt
ed. The technique itself is
intuitive and groping; at one
point we must imagine a facial
expression of Hugh Akers’ that
contains within it the whole
truth about Haggard and ins
unfitness for acceptance.
Walt's impulses away from
abstraction lead him to find
again a knowledge of eye and
car and fingertip. He must
gain what Hugh Akers calls
"enough experience to turn
around in" — experience of the
right kind. It must be first
hand. particular knowledge of
human love and suffering in
community; it must open the
individual mind onto the roots
of human culture Under the
conventions of Montgomery’s
Weaverton lie the archetypal
structures of sacrifice and
tribal unity.
Montgomery more than hints
at the connection between buri
als and rain, for instance,
pointing toward some ancient
truths not quite accessible to
the scientists' or the critic's
reasoning detachment. Such
knowledge demands commit
ment to the human community.
involvement rather than cyni
cism and aloofness.
The agrarian idea Montgo
mery develops around Walt
and Hugh is central to the
concept of the novel The idea
involves an attempt by each
generation to rejuvenate a
community sense and connect
edness with the world by fresh
perception of the truths that
operate mythically, almost un
consciously. on men.
The new perception must be
an ancient one newly earned,
for neither the world nor men
have changed in ways that arc
truly important.
Talking at such a distance
above the human situation of
the book, however, is a dupli
cation of the sin of abstraction.
It is important to take the
painstaking philosophy for the
technique it is and get through
to the ultimately serious ideas.
The beginning is unfortunate
ly difficult for the reader, and
caeiwioN
IS ChUS<E f OR
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reading for the story is hard
throughout. There are involved
allusions to literature, theolo
gy. and history. Perhaps these
need not be labored as much as
we did them; their thrust is the
contrast with a small town, its
ruling family, city council,
volunteer fire department, and
experience of citizens. Often
hilarious, these display a rich
ness to the small community
lost to many of us.
Walt’s education is not the
kind college administrators
and professors of education
discuss much. There is no
result or product because it
does not end. Maturing under
standing may change the past,
and its present is sufficiently
tied with all time. There are
parallels here with writers
from Dante to Pound. A civili
zation must evolve for a long
time to accumulate the kind of
knowledge to which Ecclesias
tes or Fugitive point. In this
shallow age. such knowledge is
important.
195 EAST CLAYTON