Allan Gurganus’ true gift as
an author is his deep psychological portraits of the denizens of the small town
of Falls, North Carolina, known as “the Fallen” by those same locals. This
volume of three novellas, Fear Not, Saints Have Mothers, and Decoy
is filled with the juicy “dirt” that is dished out as what some might call idle
gossip, but which is in fact the poison that is quite possibly in the drinking
water. The name of the river that flows through Falls is Lithium River. We are
left to wonder if this river is indeed laced with the well-known treatment for
bipolar disorder which is toxic ingested in large quantities. The name left me
with a bit of a chill.
Fear Not is about secrets, as in secret enmity, most probably
unconscious since the deeds associated with the secret are too horrific to have
been done consciously. How could a man decapitate his best friend, (intentionally?),
and then impregnate the same friend’s daughter posthumously? What forces could
have been operating in the mind of Dr. Dennis S. to have done such things? Such
things are never questioned openly among “the Fallen”. The possible motivations
of what has happened are buried as secrets as deeply as the system will allow
and then everyone tries to “move on” with little resolved about what was really
at work in the sleepy innocence of that small community.
In Saints Have Mothers,
the focus is on the sweet innocence of a daughter who would let her mother
believe she had died in Africa on a summer school internship trying to swim across a river. At least we know that "African authorities" called her mother and reported her death. Somehow Caitlin’s
phone is malfunctioning so that she is not receiving her mother’s desperate
calls about her own reported death. She needed only to avail herself of a
friend’s phone, and one simple phone call would have cleared up the
misunderstanding. Then again Mom could have reached Saint Caitlin perhaps by
other means. Instead she arranges the funeral of her daughter very publicly in
detail to the point of having a local band instructor write a chorale in C
Major for Caitlin and even paying a hefty retainer to a local symphony to
perform it. She uses the money she had been saving for her daughter’s education.
The funeral becomes a Cecil B. DeMill production. When her daughter walks
through the door on the day she is due back from Africa, the community oozes
adoration and relief while Mom seems to ooze quiet hidden rage seated in her oedipal
competitive strivings. Everyone, family and friends, would they not perceive
the conflict between mother and daughter, the obvious tension when Mom gives
her daughter a black eye “accidentally”?
Some people wise up and
manage to escape Falls when they get to college. The ending of Saints Have
Mothers for the psychologically minded is no surprise. Interestingly, no
apologies are ever sincerely given, and each as they feel offended rather than
introspectively looking at their own part in the conflict simply expects an
apology from the other.
Actually of all three
novellas, Decoy contains the most of “examined lives” as two men live
out their competitive strivings. “Doc” lives his life as the perfect country
general practitioner in this small town, except he is Yale educated and could
have moved on to an exotic specialty and some fashionable practice in a more
upscale community environment. So what are his motivations in coming back to
Falls? Being a big fish in a small pond?
When he finishes his practice
of some 40 years at age 70, he then proceeds to produce hand carved duck decoys
that are down to the feathering absolutely perfect, things of such perfection
that they are museum quality pieces that sell for astronomical prices which
puts him way out of the league of his good friend, Red’s son, Billy who laments
at his own limitations and underlying envy of Doc Roper. In the end the flood
carries away Doc’s treasures after he is really too old to continue these
quality productions. Red's Billy gets some pleasure out of the destruction of these
treasures of his close friend and he seems to have some awareness of these
feelings also. They both seem to know how they feel about each other even
though it is not spoken between them.
Falls is such a small town,
but the psychology of its residents is as deep as the river was when it flooded
that town. Allan Gurganus’ portraits of its residents are eerie and dark. Their
mystery makes them also alluring. Local
Souls is an excellent trilogy well worth the read.
