From the Lists: #44 Point Counter Point by Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley

Sometimes working through the list is an academic slog. The books are too cerebral, too experimental, or too outside of my sphere of experience to fully appreciate them. Then along comes #44 Point Counter Point (1928) by Aldous Huxley in which the clouds part and the sun returns.

Where Conrad's Nostromo was often described as the War and Peace of central American banana republics, Point Counter Point would be considered the equivalent for London's post WWI privileged arts community. The central character, John Bidlake, is a once famous Victorian artist who is now more known for his sexual exploits than for his art. His children, their spouses, lovers, acquaintances, and employees form the novel's intoxicatingly diverse world.

What I found most intriguing while reading this work was Huxley's ability to create and interweave a cast of characters whose lives are both distant from and seemingly immediate to my own experience. And, while I will most likely never live on an estate or be the head of a national socialist party or a famous artist on the party circuit, I could easily equate each character within the novel with someone I know in my life.

The connections between the characters in the novel are maintained through either blood relation to John Bidlake, marriage to a Bidlake sibling, employment by the family, and those people who are by nature drawn into the orbits of the famous. Huxley simply drops the reader into the thoughts and conversations of his characters. Like in life, tidbits of information are hinted at, implied, or casually dropped with maliciously gossipy intent during intimate dinners, tea, or cocktail parties. The upper classes prove their "modernity" through casual sexuality and general acceptance of loose morals. Rebelling against the publicly displayed Victorian morals of the middle classes, the rich and privileged flaunt their desire for excitement through late night drinking, carousing, and casual affairs - always searching for the next thrill.

Of course it is not all fun and games - otherwise this novel would become just another moralistic story of excess. Rather, Huxley perfectly balances the tawdry with the respectable, the unorthodox with the traditional, the Victorian moralist with the Jazz age flapper, the conformist with the anarchist, and the love match with the socially advantageous marriage in order to create a world recognizable by readers of all social strata.

Recommendation: Two enthusiastic thumbs up for the writing style, character development, and story. I admit that I am often eager to complete a book from the list in order to move on to the next. In this case I wanted to linger in Huxley's world more thoroughly exploring these characters, hanging on their words, existing in their orbits for just a while longer.

Connection: In my meditation class, our teacher often speaks of how all things are connected. In this case, I have a small connection to this novel. One of the plot crises occurs in the Mews at Hyde park, which were once part of the royal stables, but were later converted into fashionable townhomes. Coincidentally, I have been in one of these homes, visiting a friend who lived in London. It is a small world, indeed.