The Big Picture

The filmmaker and writer John Sayles has produced a fascinating book in ‘A Moment in the Sun’.  Part historical fiction, part set pieces, part social commentary, part short stories, it’s huge (almost a thousand pages).  There are many characters, and quite a few of them appear only briefly, never to return in the narrative.  They’re there to make a point, to illustrate a particular place and time.  Many of the characters are two-dimensional, and not very interesting as people.  But the overall effect is dazzling.

Big, but well printed and bound. Good exercise.

Sayles makes no bones about his political leanings.  The book could be seen as a literary corollary to Howard Zinn’s ‘A People’s History of the United States’.  Sayles and Zinn would probably agree that traditional textbook history is more propaganda than truth. Every grand historical figure in Sayles's book is cast in an unfavorable light.  Their achievements are portrayed as self-serving, their motivations far from generous, and their breakthroughs almost accidental.  But for Sayles and Zinn the real triumphs belong to the little people, the ones that suffer relentless hardship and deprivation but sometimes manage to survive with dignity and a measure of grace, and whose accomplishments though modest are often honestly earned.  At other times they are ground to bits by the unyielding and unforgiving machinery of economic growth, capitalism, and politics.

The book is narrowly focused on just a few years, 1897 to about 1902.  But within those few years the breadth of view is vast.  Sayles covers the Yukon gold rush, frightening racist political developments in Wilmington, North Carolina, the Spanish-American War in Cuba, U.S. intervention in the Philippines, the development of African-American divisions in the U.S. armed forces, New York City, several important technological developments, prison life, yellow journalism, and various entertainment venues.  I came away much better informed about that time even though Sayles doesn’t attempt to teach history directly.  Through the experiences of the characters (both major and minor) we come to understand the historical context.

Any writer who can produce such a long book and keep the reader interested, informed, and entertained pretty much throughout must be doing something right.  I got through the book in a little under a month, and that included a decent amount travel when time for reading was limited.  It’s quite possible to put the book down for a few days and pick it up again without losing much.  The structure is flexible, maybe even loose.  Some of the set pieces are brilliant.  And Sayles has a wonderful ear for dialogue and dialect.  Many of the scenes are very cinematic and would work well on the big screen.  Or maybe a 100-part mini-series on PBS.  Or maybe not.

In some places Sayles’s political agenda is applied with a heavy hand.  We’re hit over the head repeatedly with certain concepts and views, and that got tiresome for me in a few places.  But should you have the same reaction, just read on.  You’ll soon return to more imaginative writing and some fresh ideas.  Sayles’s makes some obvious though not explicit references to contemporary events.  There is an account of water boarding in the Philippines that exactly parallels our own experiences in the war on terrorism.  Interesting how little things change.

It’s hard to come away from reading this book with much traditional patriotic pride.  It’s not a pretty picture on the grand scale.  Ours is an aggressive and arrogant country that has continuously nourished those in power from the sweat and misery of others both here and abroad.  The amount and severity of violence and racism is disturbing.  The ignorance of the masses is discouraging as is the ease with which they are manipulated by those in power. But our cult of the individual does allow for a remarkable degree of individual freedom, even if most of the available paths lead to degradation and pain.   We work incredibly hard and we constantly push forward.  There is always hope.  Things are always changing.  It is possible to rise to the top.  But should you be trampled by the crowd instead, society won’t hold out much of a safety net.  It’s a high stakes game, and we are hooked on the thrill of playing.

I read much of the book while traveling in Germany and Switzerland, where the individual is much less important and the collective good is more highly valued.  So different, and fascinating to observe while reading Sayles.  As much as I admire the more civilized European approach, as an American I don’t think I could always abide the limits and restrictions that come along with that more sophisticated approach.  Or maybe it would just take some getting used to.  After all the Europeans fought each other in bloody wars for century after century before finally realizing that they might be better of trying to cooperate and share the limited resources at their disposal.  Can’t be sure that this new approach will work either.  Things can get ugly pretty quickly.

Sayles has managed a historical novel with echoes of Dickens, Balzac, and Zola.  It’s more historical and less literary than their works, but give it a try.  Enjoy the writing.  And you’ll probably learn something along the way.