Subject: Gene Wolfe: Castleview

From: Geoff Alexander Cohen <gacohen at pucc.princeton.edu>
Date: Mon, 02 Jul 1990 01:39:03 +0000

I just finished Gene Wolfe's latest, _Castleview_, which concerns a
family moving from Chicago to an old-fashioned town called Castleview, in
which it is possible to glimpse a castle off in the distance. (Thus the name!)
It started off pretty well, and I enjoyed Wolfe's first dealings with modern
reality in novel form, and there are some pretty surprisingly enjoyable and yet
mainstream-type characters (surprising in the mainstream-ness, not enjoyable.)

     Now don't get me wrong, I'm a very big Wolfe fan, and would recommend him
almost without reservation as the best science-fiction author today.  However,
I DIDN"T GET IT!!!!! :(.  Yes, I'm used to him being pretty opaque, for example
Fifth Head of Cerberus, as I saw in a recent post.  But after a re-reading, I
think I got a lot (not all) of what he meant in that.  _There Are Doors_ is a
little harder, but still excellent, and I was left with a sense of completion,
if not closure.

     But _Castleview_ left me cold, confused, and angry.  Could someone
out there give some advice as to what happened?  In the words of Orson Scott
Card himself, "Altogether, one of the most disappointing books I've ever read."
It seems he was as confused as I.  Card says in another essay, "I wish Gene
Wolfe would take pity on his not so smart readers and EXPLAIN WHAT HAPPENED!"
Amen!

Geoff Cohen, Center for Energy and Environmental Studies
Princeton University.

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From: Bob Myers <stssram at unocal.com>
Date: Thu, 05 Jul 1990 03:23:11 +0000

>>>>> On 2 Jul 90 01:39:03 GMT, GACOHEN at pucc.Princeton.EDU (Geoff Alexander Cohen) said:

Geoff>      I just finished Gene Wolfe's latest, _Castleview_, which
Geoff> concerns a family moving from Chicago to an old-fashioned town
Geoff> called Castleview, in which it is possible to glimpse a castle
Geoff> off in the distance. (Thus the name!)

Hmmm.  I used to live in a town in Illinois, about 35 miles northwest
of Chicago, by the name of Fox River Grove.  Gene Wolfe lives in
Barrington, about 5 miles towards Chicago.   Anyway, there _is_ a castle
in Fox River Grove, and a restaurant across the street called Castleview...

I gotta get this book.

---

From: Mark Brown <mbrown at tonic.osf.org>
Date: Thu, 05 Jul 1990 17:17:58 +0000

In article <STSSRAM.90Jul4202311 at toward.unocal.COM>, stssram at unocal.COM
(Bob Myers) writes:
|> >>>>> On 2 Jul 90 01:39:03 GMT, GACOHEN at pucc.Princeton.EDU (Geoff
Alexander Cohen) said:
|> 
|> Geoff>      I just finished Gene Wolfe's latest, _Castleview_, which
|> Geoff> concerns a family moving from Chicago to an old-fashioned town
|> Geoff> called Castleview, in which it is possible to glimpse a castle
|> Geoff> off in the distance. (Thus the name!)

Geoff, re-read CASTLEVIEW slowly, this time with an eye for Arthurian
Legend...you know, Camelot and all that.

I'm lead to understand that it's *very* subtly done, and to get some of the
references requires *extensive* knowledge of the Arthur Mythos...

Mark Brown   IBM AWD / OSF  |  "The tricky part is common usage."
The Good     mbrown at osf.org |