Hundred Book Challenge #7: "Falconer" by John Cheever

“Falconer” is a hard story to describe. At it's base, it's the story of Ezekiel Farragut who is in prison for murdering his brother but so much more and so so so much less. 

If I read online summaries of this book I can see I'm not alone in having a tough time explaining what this book was about. Some people say Farragut learns to love again in prison because he has a relationship with a fellow prisoner... but the thing is that bit isn't any more prominent than any of the other bits. I could have just said, for example, that the book is about how Farragut is trying to get a diamond from a fellow prisoner in order to complete a homemade radio.

I think it's fair to say this book is sort of a stream of consciousness but a bit more accessible... call it a primer to “Ulysses.”

This story had me thinking about this report that reading literary fiction improves empathy. I like to think that's true because I read a lot of literary fiction and I'd like to have something to look down my nose about.

Anyway, does all this reading make me more empathetic?

From Scientific American:

Popular fiction tends to portray situations that are otherworldly and follow a formula to take readers on a roller-coaster ride of emotions and exciting experiences. Although the settings and situations are grand, the characters are internally consistent and predictable, which tends to affirm the reader’s expectations of others. It stands to reason that popular fiction does not expand the capacity to empathize.

Literary fiction, by contrast, focuses more on the psychology of characters and their relationships. “Often those characters’ minds are depicted vaguely, without many details, and we’re forced to fill in the gaps to understand their intentions and motivations,” Kidd says. This genre prompts the reader to imagine the characters’ introspective dialogues. This psychological awareness carries over into the real world, which is full of complicated individuals whose inner lives are usually difficult to fathom. Although literary fiction tends to be more realistic than popular fiction, the characters disrupt reader expectations, undermining prejudices and stereotypes. They support and teach us values about social behavior, such as the importance of understanding those who are different from ourselves.

So, “Falconer” has no real storyline. All it does is follow this fellow though prison. There are no real character transformation, no real protagonist, no real conflict or any of that business. The character of Farragut is far from likeable but, yes, I found myself empathizing with him.

There is one particularly unusual passage I'll relate to you here... the buildup to this is a bit convoluted but suffice to say Farragut's boyfriend is looking to escape when a visiting cardinal comes, but then it rains and the cardinal may cancel the visit... here is the line:

“The naked man was worried. If it rained there would be no escape, no cardinal, no nothing. Have pity upon him, then; try to understand his fears.”

This is literally the only time the narrator breaks the fourth wall. It was so stark and shocking that, yes, I obeyed what he did. It was crazy and it worked. I almost started crying for this character for whom I couldn't think of any real redeeming characteristics.

You know, this is how literature can be a bit transgressive. It's not about rooting for the villain, it's about realizing that the construct of hero and villain is false. If the villains are not villains then the heroes are not heroes and so much of how we want to see the world falls apart, but what is then constructed in its place is something that allows for more empathy. You don't have to love someone to understand them or pity them.

Of course, all this empathy can cause, at least in me, even more frustration with people around me. People who are so blind to the world that even something a stupidly petty as a political party or a favorite football team is enough to demonize “the other.”

Of course it all falls apart there because I then realize I'm not empathizing with these people who frustrate me.

Well... this is only the seventh book in the Hundred Book Challenge so maybe when I get to the end I'll be all sorts of empathetic- even for people who drive me crazy for their lack of empathy.