12. Instead of mockery, a many-sided scrutiny
12. Instead of mockery, a many-sided scrutiny
Glen Tomasetti’s Thoroughly Decent People (1976) and Man of Letters (1981).
Instead of mockery, a many-sided scrutiny:
At first sight the titles seem innocuous but once the books have been started the reader suspects that s/he is being teased. The name Thoroughly Decent People suggests that a defence is going to be mounted against those who might think the book’s people were something else; there’s an emphasis in ‘thoroughly’ that sounds like the correction of a view that’s in some way different, and probably less charitable. Man of Letters, by affirming the scholarship of its central character, implies also that at the other end of his figure there may be feet of clay.
I say these things, of course, after becoming familiar with the books, but I do believe that Glen Tomasetti’s titles give us an indication, right at the start, of the ambivalence which we will find throughout her two novels. [read more]