Woiwode, Larry. Beyond the Bedroom Wall: a Family Album. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1975.
I was in love with Beyond the Bedroom Wall in the very first chapters. The detail with which Woiwode described the midwest landscape was beautiful. The story opens with Charles Neumiller going home to bury his father. In his mind he pictures every detail of the landscape he is returning to. I also appreciated the reverent description of Charles preparing his father’s body for the funeral. It was painstaking and loving and uncomfortable, just how a burial should be. From there, though, the story fell apart. The next section is told from the point of view of Charles’s son, Martin’s girlfriend, Alpha. I lost interest right around the middle Alpha’s diary, right after she marries Martin. The idea of a story about multi-generational family is one I normally take to. Maybe it was the length and the attention to detail that did me in. Moderation is key and too much of a good thing can be bad, even when it comes to descriptive words on a page.
One of the best lines, “My existence is a narrow line I tread between the person I’m expected to be and the person who hides behind his real self to keep the innermost antiquity of me intact” (p 9). Now, who can’t relate to that?
Author Fact: Woiwode is tenured at SUNY – Binghamton.
Book Trivia: Woiwode published a volume of short stories called Neumiller Stories. I can only assume these short stories are about the same Neumiller family as in Beyond the Bedroom Wall.
BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “The Great Plains (the Dakotas)” (p 106).
~*LunaSea*~ 