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All the Names
by José Saramago, Margaret Jull Costa
by José Saramago, Margaret Jull Costa
What is it about clerks that they so often attract the attentions of writers? Chaucer, Dickens, Melville, Kafka. I don't know - their anonymity? their existence as functionaries?, they love them. This is the story of one of my favorite clerks in literature (Wemmick from _Great Expectations_ being the other) who takes it into his head to break all the rules and actually make some human contact. This book is so beautifully written, so compassionate, and sort of sad.
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Jed
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Aug 15, 2007 11:58am
So true! They do seem to champion the dutiful civil servant quite often. Just something alluring about their fragile nature while longing for escape from routine and repetition. Though it doesn't get better than Gregor Samsa (who for me, wins the honorary degree) we musn't forget Trollope's The Three Clerks, which I'm guessing you've absorbed. The protagonists in two of my favorite stories from Dubliners are clerks. Farrington from "Counterparts" is a brutal and abusive lush. And then there's poor Little Chandler from "A Little Cloud". Such a melancholy life, and so sad that all he ever wanted to do was become a poet and read poetry to his wife but was too bashful to do so. Sigh...
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I haven't read The Three Clerks, but I love love love Trollope, so I'll have to look for that one. Trollope seems to love writing about parlimentarians (Plantagenet Palliser being my favorite) and church officials (Septimus Harding and Dr. Grantly being two of my other favorites). I haven't looked at Dubliners in *so* long, it's probably criminal. You're reminding me of too many good books! I want to read all day!
