From the Lists: #42 Deliverance

As I work through the 100 (121) Best Novels of the 20th Century, I never thought that it would take over 5 years to get to this point. But, considering the number of entries that are composed of multiple books, the varying degrees of interest I've had in each, and my continuing attempts to have a life outside of the literary sphere, I guess I am not doing too poorly.

After completing the first movement of the Dance to the Music of Time series,  I eagerly anticipated digging into James Dickey's Deliverance (1970).  A manly adventure in the backwoods of Georgia could not be further from highbrow artsy introspection - or so I thought. While I was expecting a good old boy adventure consisting of a rafting trip gone horribly wrong, what I actually got was a first person, introspective story of survival and guilt.

Reality

Expectation

It is possible that I based my high expectations on the movie inspired by the novel. I hoped for a Burt Reynolds telling (left), but ended up with the John Voight version of events (right). There is a lot of solitude, discontent, deep thought, waiting for things to happen - then 60 pages later there is a camping / rafting trip. It takes so long to get to the action, that I would say this is more of a coming of middle age novel that includes a bit of danger resulting in moral decisions and physical exhaustion.

I can't say I felt a connection with any of the characters. The narrator has an unchallenging, comfortable life with no particular ambitions, he is content in his rather passionless marriage, he has a bit of a "man crush" on Lewis, and barely hides his mildly patronizing contempt for the other two campers. He would have been much happier to have headed off into the woods with only Lewis.

Anyone with a television has probably either seen the movie, or at a minimum is familiar with the dueling banjos song. While the woodsy man rape scene is included in the book, it is dispassionately related by the narrating character. There is almost a note of contempt for his friend who is writhing and screaming in pain while being sodomized by a toothless hillbilly. Almost as if he thinks he would have reacted in a more manly fashion.

From there, the action turns into a literal manhunt - and not in the good way (hahaha). The action is lost to the extended internal monologue focused on survival and subterfuge. I think that the movie version was actually better than the novel in that it is easier to actually see something than to have a rock described to you at length. The movie also provides a more balanced character study than can be attained in the first person, internal dialog approach taken by Dickey.

Recommendation: In this case I think the movie is actually better than the book - unless of course you are into hearing John Voight's internal thoughts.....The novel can be summed up as follow - some average guys stumble into some big trouble, make some bad decisions, and do their best to get back home to their average lives.