Second Guessing the Modern Library

The time I’ve spent with Sebastian Dangerfield has been tumultuous. I almost feel like one of the people that Dangerfield uses and abuses. He certainly plays on the sympathies and prejudices of the other characters in Ginger Man, and he even does the same with his readers.

Dangerfield, who has been joyfully running from one scheme to another, has been looking forward to an inheritance when his wealthy father dies. However, his wealthy father apparently knows his progeny too well, and the stipulations placed on the inheritance at his death are grievous. I was almost disappointed to hear that we as readers were in for more of the same that we’ve been exposed to during the first ninety percent of the book, when Dangerfield learns that his father has dies and left him a fortune that is locked up in trust until Sebastian turns forty seven. (Ironically, the exact age I am right now.)

That news turns out to be too much for Sebastian, and it is almost too much to me. The way that Sebastian ruins his life, and the way that he treats others around him, is so painful to read, and I’m not looking forward to the last few chapters. There has to be some reprieve.

Of course, I know that Sebastian wouldn’t have inherited anything from his father and then turned into a saint. His father is certainly right to keep from giving Sebastian anything immediately. Regardless of the amount, Sebastian would have spent the entire sum shockingly fast in booze and women.

I don’t believe I would have identified this book as one of the one hundred best English language books of the twentieth century. The danger when putting out a list like this is that every hack with an ax to grind, like myself, can come along and second guess the decisions of the editorial board. Well, here I go, second-guessing.

John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath makes an appearance on the list, but Steinbeck’s other masterwork, East of Eden, does not. So, for your humble consideration, I propose adding East of Eden to the Modern Library’s list of the best English language novels of the twentieth century, and removing Ginger Man. Sorry, Mr. Donleavy.

Another proposal, which I make a little more shamefacedly, is substituting The Lord of the Rings for Ginger Man. It’s easy to dismiss Tolkien as a second-rate author, probably because he has such commercial appeal. However, I think his storytelling is very artful. One certainly couldn’t say that his characters are any more two-dimensional than Sebastian Dangerfield is.

My final suggestion is to replace Ginger Man with To Kill a Mockingbird.

You know, every time I think of my “final suggestion”, I think of another “ultimate final suggestion.” How about Fahrenheit 451? That, I think is a more worthy book.

Once you start this line of thinking, it’s hard to stop. I have thought of another book, though I’m not sure if it was actually written in the twentieth century. It may have been written after the twentieth century. (OK, it’s Underworld, by Don DeLillo, and it was published in 1997, so it could have made the cut.)

Overall, I’m glad I’ve read Ginger Man. I’ve come to have a sympathy for the main character, and it certainly is a well told story, but I don’t think it warranted the Modern Library’s recognition.