The Bold Saboteurs A Novel eBook Chandler Brossard
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A “startling, terrifying” novel about a troubled young street thief in the gritty Washington, DC, of the thirties and forties (Houston Post).
At the park where the outcasts of Washington, DC, gather, everyone calls him Yogi. Although only a boy, he steals like a man, taking jewelry and money from wherever and whomever he can. When he’s flush, Yogi spends like a prince, eating beef stew and wasting whole afternoons at the cinema. When he’s broke, he looks for someone else to rob.
At home, Yogi goes by his real name George Brown. With their violent, alcoholic father absent for long periods of time and their mother too brittle to cope, George and his older brother learn to fend for themselves. Roland becomes a security guard while George turns to a life of crime. But to survive among the prostitutes, muggers, and extortionists who prowl the streets of the nation’s capital, a young man must always have his wits about him, and Yogi/George is prone to schizophrenic hallucinations. When he is locked up in jail for a night and experiences his most vivid delusion yet, he fears that the line between sanity and insanity has become permanently blurred.
Brilliantly fusing hard-edged realism and surrealistic flights of fantasy, The Bold Saboteurs is a highly original work of art from the groundbreaking author of Who Walk in Darkness.
At the park where the outcasts of Washington, DC, gather, everyone calls him Yogi. Although only a boy, he steals like a man, taking jewelry and money from wherever and whomever he can. When he’s flush, Yogi spends like a prince, eating beef stew and wasting whole afternoons at the cinema. When he’s broke, he looks for someone else to rob.
At home, Yogi goes by his real name George Brown. With their violent, alcoholic father absent for long periods of time and their mother too brittle to cope, George and his older brother learn to fend for themselves. Roland becomes a security guard while George turns to a life of crime. But to survive among the prostitutes, muggers, and extortionists who prowl the streets of the nation’s capital, a young man must always have his wits about him, and Yogi/George is prone to schizophrenic hallucinations. When he is locked up in jail for a night and experiences his most vivid delusion yet, he fears that the line between sanity and insanity has become permanently blurred.
Brilliantly fusing hard-edged realism and surrealistic flights of fantasy, The Bold Saboteurs is a highly original work of art from the groundbreaking author of Who Walk in Darkness.
The Bold Saboteurs A Novel eBook Chandler Brossard
Read this book. That's all I will say. Words do not describe this completely off-the-wall, stream of (insane) consciousness work. It is completely unique.Product details
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The Bold Saboteurs A Novel eBook Chandler Brossard Reviews
Best book I read in high school, inspired by Catcher in the Rye, a must read. Keeps me turning pages every time I read it.
Not knowing anything about Chandler Brossard or 'The Bold Saboteurs' prior to picking it out of a bargain bin, I took a chance on the book because the strange title seemed so mis-matched to the thumbnail synopsis, and because I wasn't risking a lot on it. After finishing, it's mildly surprising that this book hasn't sustained a following over the years - I can't quite think of it as a classic and it is clumsy at times, but there's also a brutal honesty about this story of street life in 1930's D.C. that is still subversive and raw. No doubt for its time (originally published in 1953), it must have seemed completely over-the-top with its frank language, sexual situations, and realistic depictions of alcoholism, poverty and violence, though surely the no-holds-barred tendencies of contemporary fiction will have muted most of the shrill screeching that comes out of 'The Bold Saboteurs' for today's readers.
'Saboteurs' is a strange mixture of realism and hallucination the book follows George Baker, age eight through sixteen, as he careens through the petty underworld of Washington D.C, struggling to survive along with his mother and brother after his alcoholic father degenerates into complete sodden failure. What separates the story from simple realism (regardless of how potent), is the intimation of the boy's fractured psyche through hallucinogenic periods integrated into the narrative. Little is done to tip off the reader that George is entering one of these periods - it only becomes clear as absurdity builds on absurdity with the logic of a dream. Together with the details of his education as a thief, the clash between the boy's conscious and unconscious depicts a world view that superficially disavows faith in anything other than itself and at the same time reveals a pitiful search for structure and comfort.
Steven Moore, in a brief introduction, suggests that 'Saboteurs' is based on Brossard's childhood, which is almost all the information I could dig up on the history of the book. As such, I have no idea how much of the story has been inflated for effect, and how much the Post-War zeitgeist influenced Brossard's remembrance of things past. Regardless, the traumatic effect of alcoholism and poverty makes for a harrowing and believable read, particularly early on in the book, when George's older brother Roland finally takes a stand against their violent, drunken father and throws him out of the apartment. From there, George matures under the guidance of his teen-age brother and from teachers on the street, but his learned brand of contempt for the establishment as well his desperate (disavowed) need for companionship and acceptance and forgiveness, keep him restlessly moving into one unfulfilling situation after another.
The book's appeal will doubtless be limited due to it's content and somewhat bleak assessment of life. Mr. Moore, again from the introduction, refers to its "episodic and frequently hilarious account of a life of crime" - of course humor is in the eye of the one who's laughing, but I don't think this aspect of the story is particularly successful. Humor is difficult, and most of Brossard's attempt come off as ineffective. What I did find funny was the occasional witticism that seemed to spring out of nowhere, like the title of this review, or the drunken rambling of an overheard party guest as he forecasts his descent into mediocrity. Far more noteworthy than the attempts at humor, to my mind, was the insight into a different time and social condition - one that I assumed would be different than my own experiences, though still recognizable, but which turned out to be as far removed from anything I know as Dickens' London slums are.
Although I don't like comparing one author to another, the lack of other reviews and of information on Brossard himself makes me feel as though in this instance it might not be a complete waste of time to suggest some similarities. The writing style itself reminded me of the few pages I read several years ago of William Burroughs 'Junky' (not of 'Naked Lunch' though) and of J.D. Salinger's 'Catcher in the Rye'. Told from the first person, with brutal bits of self-examination as well as a sharp eye on the culture the characters are embedded in, these novels from the early fifties strike me as the first independent steps in a new style of literature - somewhat faltering in their method yet effective overall. Brossard is also often lumped in with Beat writers like Ginsberg and Kerouac, though according to his Wikipedia entry, it was something "he neither sought nor desired". Whether it was intentional or not, there does seem to me to be a strong affinity with the Beats - intense self-examination, contempt for middle-class values, and a hedonistic lifestyle, in this instance exemplified by a celebration of the petty thief as a transcendent personality type.
Ultimately I'd recommend 'The Bold Saboteurs', though mainly for those interested in the time period and literature tangentially associated to the ideas inherent to the Beat Generation. I also enjoyed the psychological aspect of the novel, though I believe that this has probably been revisited over the years in more accomplished efforts. These points are where I found the most appeal - awkward at times, yes, but still fully worthwhile.
A note on this edition The text of this Herodias printing has a disappointing amount of typographical errors - I began to notice one every few pages, and consisted of misspellings and improper punctuation. Although readable, it is something to consider when looking at this line for future purchases.
Read this book. That's all I will say. Words do not describe this completely off-the-wall, stream of (insane) consciousness work. It is completely unique.
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