Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published Perhaps William Gaddis' most accessible novel--though a dense and imposing book--A Frolic of His Own is a masterful work that mocks the folly of a litigious society. Personally, I still think JR is funnier (not to mention Gaddis’ ultimate masterpiece), but Frolic features a simpler story and a smaller cast of characters; the reading is less demanding and therefore (arguably) more enjoyable. A Frolic of His Own. This is followed by a lengthy court ruling, which in turn is followed by a play. It was his fourth novel, and it won his second U.S. National Book Award for Fiction.[1]. 7126 A Frolic of His Own 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. People complain about how he doesn't identify who is speaking, and how it's all dialogue. To get the review part out of the way: If he'd written only this I'd probably be hailing it as the greatest great American novel of all time. A Frolic of His Own by Gaddis, William and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at AbeBooks.co.uk. At the battle of Antietam they meet, fight and kill each other. Take the deep bedrock madness of the Germans from Peter the Hermit and Thomas Münster right down to the death camps they try to masquerade as nationalism, like that exquisite distillation of total madness that's peculiarly Japanese. USA seen 20 years in advance. So much of this book is beyond insane. Years ago, the then Prime Minister of Australia, Malcom Fraser, suffered significant damage to his conservative image when, in Memphis USA, his pants went on a frolic of their own one evening, never to be seen again. It's a novel told almost entirely in dialogue, and a frantic, careening dialogue at that. The … Basie takes the case, while the defendants happen to use Harry Lutz's legal firm to represent them. Sloughed through 372 pages of this and just can't find motivation to read the last 130 or so pages. Lawsuits abound as William Gaddis explores a society in which litigation is the “norm” in A Frolic of His Own. Award Years. I appreciated Gaddis' maneuvers and techniques but did not feel moved by them, sort of like when eating a meal prepared with great artistry that doesn't actually taste good. William Gaddis was the author of five novels. Gaddis has his finger on the pulse of a national disgrace in the need for tort reform but, since the reformers are self-regulating lawyers, it isn't likely to happen anytime soon. He's in a class by himself (although I'd place him in an American pantheon that includes Pynchon and David Foster Wallace - writers who write books that are more than just novels - that are forces of nature). Bland.''). This hardy har har takedown of what we supposedly call our bedrock of freedom, the rule of law the rights of every citizen for a chance to assert his/her inalienable freedom to be anything they can create IS only as good as the house of cards it sets on. For these unlettered hordes mired in poverty the only things that are free are sex and religion, and the poorer and more illiterate they are the more they procreate and the more ornate these religious pantheons and rituals become. You seek it like a dream, and as soon as you find it you become its prey. It's an essential of the human condition, the worse the human condition the greater the madness and your revealed religion simply comes along to channel the madness, give some shape to it. He has chosen to write on justice and jurisprudence at a time when there has been a resurgence of interest in rights theory. It received the American Book Award and the National Book Award in 1994. 57 likes. A deposition is taken and Oscar is examined. It presents a world in which everyone is suing someone for some perceived wrong and demands of justice are really just weakly disguised grabs for cash. If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here. His stepsister Christina and her lawyer husband Harry Lutz visit him and bring him the legal opinion prepared by his father, a circuit judge, concerning the case of Szyrk v. the Village of Tatamount et al. I appreciated Gaddis' maneuvers and techniques but did not feel moved by them, sort of like when eating a meal prepared with great artistry that doesn't actually taste good. A settlement is offered, but he rejects it and proceeds with his suit. He dies before Oscar can thank him, and his clerk visits Oscar. Told largely through dialogue, stream-of-consciousness monologue, and interpolated texts, A Frolic of His Own follows Long Island college professor and playwright Oscar Crease as he becomes embroiled in an ever-growing list of lawsuits, including one against himself. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Difficult.'' He constructs what seems like 40 lawsuits on top of each other with a huge range of characters and people and events without stopping for a second to slow down but only speed up. Gaddis faced a temptation that he could not resist.If a chance to throw in everything including the kitchen sink presented it self , it could not be resisted.You get virtually an entire play written by one of the characters and the … A Frolic of His Own is a 1994 postmodern novel by American author William Gaddis. In judgments dating back more than 200 years, judges have used the expression a “ frolic of his own ” to describe acts which are considered to be outside the … If you believe the word on the street about Gaddis, the big ones are the Recognitions and JR, and the lesser ones are Carpenter's Gothic and this one, with this one getting a little more "major-Gaddis" cred because of its quasi-iconic first sentence. Oscar learns that "creative accounting" of the very successful movie results in a loss, so he will not see any money. Its frenetic pace does more do describe the feeling of American life than the way Americans speak. With "A Frolic of His Own" William Gaddis has blown the lid off this coop and the chickens come home to roost under the starry firmament that's a glittering, blithering endless nebulae much like the idea of judicial finality in a court of law. title) A Frolic of His Own: a legal phrase that Gaddis found in Prosser: "In 1834 Baron Parke uttered the classic phrase, that a master is not liable for the torts of his servant who is not at all on his master’s business, but is ‘going on a frolic of his own’" (461). William Gaddis and American Justice at The Millions.com, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A_Frolic_of_His_Own&oldid=961229654, National Book Award for Fiction winning works, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 7 June 2020, at 09:23. But I need to tell you one thing: watch Lily. – You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law. Justice? Jerry and Oscar discuss his play at length. Gaddis is the ultimate unrecognized great writer in America. A Frolic of His Own by William Gaddis and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at AbeBooks.com. In The Recognitions he takes on forgery, in JR, capitalism, and in A Frolic of His Own, the legal system. I've discovered Gaddis via David Foster Wallace. The voices of a not quite divorced girlfriend, a federal judge father under political and media attack, and lawyers galore round out this dialogue rich … This was the third book of Gaddis' trio of magnificent books that I've read (I've not read his other two shorter novels yet - but will soon). Refresh and try again. 1 But in the same case Baron Parke conceded that mere disobedience on the servant's part while doing his master's work would not excuse the master. This case concerns a situation where a dog got entrapped by a steel sculpture created by Mr. Szyrk. Unfortunately gloriously it is also realism. Consequently, I found myself detached from main characters and unsymapthetic to their sordid fates. FINALIST; Award Categories . Frolic and detour in the law of torts occur when an employee makes a physical departure from the service of his employer. A Frolic of His Own was somewhat disappointing to me not because it was bad, but because it was less than what I expected rightly or wrongly after experiencing the Gaddis of The Recognitions. FICTION > SUGGESTED READING. [1] College professor Oscar Crease’s life seems to be a constant frolic of his own: Readers first meet him in the hospital, having run himself over when he hot-wired his own car. A few may ultimately abandon this book at some point because they have no meaningful connection with these characters past a running grimace. At first glance it’s a voice that seems very realistic, very much in tune to the way people actually talk. 1994 > Award Status. Like most Gaddis (the most extreme example being. Admin #14 Posted : 09 November 2006 13:42:00(UTC) Rank: Guest. I was told going in that it was funnier than JR (which made me laugh more than any other novel I had read up to that point). In JR and The Recognitions I found characters whose destinies in the story lines mattered to me -- not so in Frolic. A blog describing the miscellaneous adventures of a young 20 something Sydney lawyer who likes suits and architecture. Punctuation is only the tip of the iceberg that the reader has to plow through to reach appreciation of this comic masterpiece. And if you look at my ratings, you might think that I'm on board that train as well; I do, after all, have this book rated a full star lower than either of Gaddis' first two, and I haven't even read Carpenter's Gothic yet. Or like Hamlet says 'words, words, words' the legal kaleidoscope of point counterpoint I'll thrash you, you, me, file a motion make yer head spin like a hooty barn owl on mouse crack. Or like Hamlet says 'words, words, words' the legal kaleidoscope of point counterpoint I'll thrash you, you, me, file a motion make yer head spin like a hooty barn owl on mouse crack. It's funny, but it's difficult. Gaddis faced a temptation that he could not resist.If a chance to throw in everything including the kitchen sink presented it self , it could not be resisted.You get virtually an entire play written by one of the characters and the … Do the lawyers or the bankers or the politicians really believe that this system can be prolonged indefinitely, or at least propped whilst they get theirs and screw the pooch of a next generation, or the environment or the very fabric of family hearth gone cold. Not only is the avant garde, or Gaddis's personal idiosyncratic stream of consciousness and to heck with conventional conversation and punctuation, extremely off-putting and difficult, the "frolic" takes place in mid-1980s, which (and I was there) were boring, banal, and otherwise a pain to live through, he puts us through it again. Most of the human activity takes place at Oscar Crease's home out in the wetlands of Long Island, and in some expositions, the reader gets a glimpse of the beautiful landscape that surrounds it. A Frolic of His Own is a book by William Gaddis, published by Poseidon Press in 1994. WILLIAM MITCRELL LAW REVEW the 1976 National Book Award,4 Gaddis's latest novel won the 1994 National Book Award for fiction.' In 'A Frolic of His Own,' Gaddis churns out a slow-burning satire of individuals litigated to the hilt. Unfortunately, that not be the only struggle for the reader. Tense...nerve-wracking...frustrating... Gaddis employed all his skills to create a satire on American culture that makes you both love yet deeply despise the characters you are reading about. Welcome back. Gaddis, who died in 1998, brought four acclaimed novels into the world, including " The Recognitions " and " A Frolic of His Own." We’d love your help. Men and women both husked corn at husking bees. As a law teacher, I love the opening line: "Justice?--You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law." One of the fiction nominees, William Gaddis'" A Frolic of His Own " (Poseidon), won the National Book Award in November. by Scribner. I have no idea how to rate this novel, which flummoxes more than it charms. Wertheim: Law as Frolic: Law and Literature in A Frolic of His Own Published by Mitchell Hamline Open Access, 2014. Some highlights: the novel opens with several pages of streaming dialogue in which no character is introduced or explained, so all must be deduced from context. I read Frolic after JR and The Recognitions of which I was more impressed than Frolic. Law Blog - the inquisitory musings of a lawaholic For some, Gaddis's heavy dialogue, packed with the casual ellipses and broken clauses of common spoken language, may become just as overwhelming, suffocating, as the legal briefs he includes in the book. Oscar writes a play about his grandfather that goes unproduced yet appears as the … —You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law. There is so much going on here. The inheritance of Oscar's and Christina's father is burdened with expenses so that, in the end, they can just keep the house. A detour occurs when an employee or agent makes a minor departure from his employer's charge, and a frolic is a major departure when the employee is acting on his own and for his own benefit, rather than a minor sidetrack in the course of obeying an order from the employer. By Nasrullah Mambrol on June 2, 2018 • ( 0) Critics have placed William Gaddis (December 29, 1922 – December 16, 1998) in the tradition of experimental fiction, linking him closely to James Joyce and comparing him to contemporaries such as Thomas Pynchon. The story centers around Oscar Crease, the grandson of a Confederate soldier who avoided a deadly battle by invoking a legal clause that allowed him to hire a substitute and who later became a Supreme Court judge. A Frolic of His Own Winner, National Book Awards 1994 for Fiction. It was his fourth novel, and it won his second U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. Only losers. Since these individuals tend to be so blithely absurd, patience is required to swim in their rattling-on of greedy hopes. Unfortunately, that not be the onl. -You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law.”, “Let them look up in the sky then...! In the appeal process, Oscar wins his case against the movie makers, and believes he will get millions. —Well of course Oscar wants both. OTHER BOOKS. To free the dog a destructive procedure has to be performed on the sculpture, but the sculptor tries to prevent this and is granted a preliminary injunction by the judge. I read Frolic after JR and The Recognitions of which I was more impressed than Frolic. Gaddis originally planned to call the novel This is followed by a lengthy court ruling, which in turn is followed by a play. I just can't rate it a 3 but 2.5 seems too unfair........it comes close to a 3 so making it 2.75, In 'A Frolic of His Own,' Gaddis churns out a slow-burning satire of individuals litigated to the hilt. Like “where would Christianity be today if Jesus had been given ten to twenty with time off for good behavior” ― William Gaddis, A Frolic of His Own. While I didn't enjoy this book quite as much as JR, and it wasn't as deep as The Recognitions, it was still far and away one of the best novels, in my opinion, written in the past twenty-five years. But just as I did before, I ask the readers to read on and inward, hopefully reaching the point to find the rewarding goodness of dark biting humor in Gaddis's portrait of humans fighting and suing into absurdity. Consequently, I found myself detached from main characters and unsymapthetic to their sordid fat. 2.75.....is that possible? Harry’s explanation (398) and Judge Crease’s comment on this phrase (429.34-35). Tr A sometimes tongue in cheek, sometimes blatantly funny, and always deadly serious look at our litigious society. Back at home in the Hamptons, Oscar is recovering. Start by marking “A Frolic of His Own” as Want to Read: Error rating book. Anyhow, it's brilliant. He is trying to build a legal case against the movie producer Constantine Kiester and his associates who he asserts have infringed upon his copyright of his unpublished play. Oscar Crease, our pawn our foil says it's all. Amazon; Barnes & Noble; Indiebound; Local library; Filed in the following archives. Save this article. This was the third book of Gaddis' trio of magnificent books that I've read (I've not read his other two shorter novels yet - but will soon). Oscar Crease is hospitalized after a car injury. For some, Gaddis's heavy dialogue, packed with the casual ellipses and broken clauses of common spoken language, may become just as overwhelming, suffocating, as the legal briefs he includes in the book. Both the play and the movie describe an event during the Civil War, where Oscar's grandfather, later to be a judge on the Holmes court, hired two substitutes to fight for him, one for the South, the other for the North. [1] Read this book using Google Play Books app on your PC, android, iOS devices. As is, it's the weakest of the author's first 4--I've yet to read, "Of course it's madness, but the madness comes first. But frolics involving pants can cause notoriety if not carefully handled. Published in 1994 by Poseidon Press, A Frolic of His Own was Gaddis's fourth novel. Light though relevant subject matter that while fun was less than inspirational. For these unlettered hordes mired in poverty the only things that are free are sex and religion, and the poorer and more illiterate they are the more they procreate and the more ornate these religious pantheons and rituals become. This novel is very finely written with powerful, pithy observations expressed in breathtaking jabs and poetic riffs. A Frolic of His Own William Gaddis, Author Poseidon Press $24.5 (586p) ISBN 978-0-671-66984-3. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves. This novel is easier to come to terms with than Gaddis's more famous debut, More of an endurance test than a novel, I thought. 163 likes. ics 1. In The Recognitions he takes on forgery, in JR, capitalism, and in A Frolic of His Own, the legal system. Love, family, racism, greed and WASPs! Gaddis is a genius at creating a rich textual world that keeps the reader on her toes, and the plot lines are hilarious and damning. Perfect. Analysis of William Gaddis’s Novels. It's funny, but it's difficult. Some Filipino crucifies hi, "Of course it's madness, but the madness comes first. Frolic isn't as densely packed with intellect as JR or The Recognitions but is more accessible than either as his style is more accommodating in Frolic. A Frolic of Her Own. I encourage those to press on and join me at marveling at his command, his flow and rhythm in imitating anxious conversation. A Frolic of His Own by William Gaddis For Muriel Oxenberg Murphy What you seek in vain for, half your life, one day you come full upon, all the family at dinner. Frolic. And the more chaotic the times, the greater the demand for these absolutes, it's what drove Dostoevski's heroes over the brink wasn't it? Does 'frolic on his own' not recognise an expected level of supervision per type of person?? Oscar engages a lawyer, Harold Basie, and reads pieces of his script to show him similarities, although he had not seen the movie. Gaddis i. I have no idea how to rate this novel, which flummoxes more than it charms. - Why write a book this way? There's so much to say about this... That is to say, I despair, in this format, of doing justice to the scope of this--probably Gaddis's weakest--novel justice. He had short-circuited the ignition of his car while standing in front of it, and the driverless car then drove over him. Plato's Republic and biblical verse are evoked repeatedly 'laying up treasures in heaven' - whose a slave to what and if some are just naturally meant to embrace a lesser or servitude existence while their masters look out for their sheep only to be fleeced into the bargain. At apple bees, men and women pared and sliced side by side, then took turns stirring the kettles and churning the butter. Like all of his great novels, this book is a complete laugh riot, the way he shows everybody suing each other (one of the characters even drives a car that Gaddis says is a Japanese make -- a Sosumi!). The great novels of Gaddis are destined to be discovered by wider readerships, to radiate brilliantly on America's literary landscape and to endure. The most striking trait of A Frolic of His Own is its style. The doctrine of Respondeat Superior makes a principal liable for the torts of his or her agent occurring during the course of employment. And Gaddis does have a very keen ear for American dialect, but when the speed of the banter never dips below a boil, you realize his voice is more metaphoric than anything else. 6 likes. Oh my God this book is hard to read. Punctuation is only the tip of the iceberg that the reader has to plow through to reach appreciation of this comic masterpiece. ISBN 978-0671669843 Scribner | Simon & Schuster . To move about or behave playfully; romp: dogs frolicking … ", Justice and the Law, huh? Posted By Darren J Fraser Two more cases that may help you are in this months edition (Nov 2006) of Safety Management Magazine on page 20, both relating to the use of FLT's. The legal system is supposed to offer order and reliability to this chaotic existence, but the disarray in which all these characters live makes clear the chasm between the theory and the practice. Most Gaddis ( the most striking trait of a Frolic of his great novels, this is Gaddis ' accessible. 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While you read Frolic of his or her agent occurring during the course of.. As obscure or as bewildering as his other novels the Corrections, written in to! Utc ) Rank: Guest how it 's a novel told almost entirely in dialogue and! Novel won the 1994 National Book Award,4 Gaddis 's latest novel won the 1994 National Book and. Wrong with this preview of, published by Poseidon Press, a Frolic of his.. It was his fourth novel, and in a 2002 New Yorker article.... Ultimately abandon this Book at some point because they 're practically unreadable. rattling-on! Its frenetic pace does more do describe the feeling of American Frolic after JR and National...
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