Hapworth: Let's Begin??
citycabn (citycabn@gateway.net)
Fri, 24 Sep 1999 13:18:25 -0700
Having read Hapworth once in 1970, and one-half in 1999, I seem hardly the
person to get this ball rolling.
*****
So it was off to my public library in '70, somehow having heard JDS had one
more story published somewhere in the New Yorker. After arriving on my
bicycle, and hailing the librarian--Ms. Overman's granddaughter--she
proceeded to secure for me the June 19, 1965 issue, with the Stieg lovers
kissing under the tree, and Cupid overhead. Upon asking to check it out, I
was politely, but firmly, told periodicals do not circulate.
All but dashing to the nearest chair, I frantically searched for the
beginning of the story (there were no Table of Contents then), which fills a
more-than-goodly portion of the issue. As my arrival was rather late in
the day, and even though I was utilizing my Evelyn Woods reading techniques,
I had made but a small dent in the story when the closing bell rang. To my
ears it was a death knell. And perhaps Ms. Overman's granddaughter sensed
that fact. For when I brought the New Yorker back to her, she whispered
that I could check it out, but for one week only.
At home, I took to my trusty portable typewriter. In a siege that perhaps
improved my typing, I committed Hapworth to 8 1/2 x 11 pages, word for
word, comma for comma. (For this was in the days of no photocopiers, or at
least not in the backwater suburbs of my then-life.)
In '70, Hapworth was all magical. And of course JDS publications didn't
seem, back then, like a sheer impossibility.
*****
1999: I don't even know what JDS was thinking when Hapworth was announced
for publication two years ago. I wouldn't bet on it now ever happening.
Though the more innocent '70 self would like to feel that it isn't
impossible that JDS could welcome the new millennium with a nice pairing of
Hapworth *with* the "long short story about a particular party, a very
consequential party, that she [Bessie], and Seymour and my father and I
[Buddy] all went to one night in 1926." In other words, the story Seymour
has a vision of, while writing his Hapworth letter, of the mature Buddy
writing "on a very large, jet-black, very moving, gorgeous typewriter."
(Which of course turns out to be the very story Buddy *was* working on when
the letter from Bessie arrived.)
Tried to read Hapworth earlier this year. Bogged down. And then skipped
about. Was happy to find for Camille that Les Glass is Australian. The
opening camp scene had some promise. And not much else. The book list did
not do it for me. Perhaps I'll give it another go when the new JDS arrives
in my local store.
--Bruce