THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 7, 1996 TAG: 9601110544
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY RENEE ELLEN OLANDER
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
THE EDUCATION OF OSCAR FAIRCLOTH
LOUIS AUCHINCLOSS
Houghton Mifflin. 225 pp. $22.95.
In The Education of Oscar Faircloth, Louis Auchincloss mines the same territory that he has mined in 50 previous works of fiction and nonfiction. This is another amusing novel of manners about the upper crust, people whose privilege seems to insulate them from the hardships of living through the social, political, cultural and moral crises of our time.
This dip into the refined world of the Upper East Side and Westchester, exclusive boarding schools and generations of sons (surprise!) who follow their fathers' footsteps into Yale, Harvard, the family firms and positions of power to affect lots of lives - including those of us commoners (whom the narrator refers to as ``serfs'') - is self-conscious. Oscar Faircloth, a big fan of Henry James, Edith Wharton and the artists of the Golden Age, is on a quest to justify himself, to demonstrate his own goodness and the rightness of his position. As a grandfather in 1975, he tells the story of his ongoing education in being human and despite, or perhaps because of, his class, he provides a valuable lens through which we can view the constructs of contemporary life.
Oscar's story unfolds from boyhood, when he observes how his father relies ``on the maintenance of forms to hold up the structure of a thinly civilized world.'' Oscar adopts this reliance for the most part, although he recognizes the sacrifices required by the institutions that perpetuate formal education, government, religion and class. Through various characters with whom Oscar interacts, we observe conflict. For instance, Oscar's father critiques religious establishment, represented by Oscar's Episcopal minister grandfather, by noting ``Great faith seems to go hand in hand with the need to kill those who don't share it.''
The Education of Oscar Faircloth is an intelligent book geared to a readership that shares some of Oscar's learning. References to art, philosophy and literature pepper the thoughts and dialogue of the characters, and the smatterings of French phrases frequently reminded me that I've never been nearly fluent. Since Faircloth's profession is the law - Auchincloss is a lawyer - there's a good deal of legal action, which is not necessarily dry. Some passages of dialogue, however, seem unconvincing and even a bit tedious, for instance:
``Had he been able for a single fortnight to slip into the shoes of his collateral descendant, my old friend Boni de Castellane . . . Or had he spent a weekend at Blenheim when the Marlboroughs were entertaining the Prince of Wales. Or had he journeyed to Poland to visit Elizabeth Potocki and drive and four-in-hand right into the great hall of Lancut! Yes, sir, those were the days!''
I wondered: ``Who cares?'' - perhaps a sign of my own serfdom.
Despite these potential pitfalls, Auchincloss' book is an invitation to consider the choices that people make, given the choices they have. Oscar Faircloth means well. As a practical benefactor, he consistently offers whatever assistance he can to lift serfs into his own milieu and he hopes the ends justify the means. He knows some serfs despise him. He is a champion of capitalism, but his democratic ideals cause him to ponder the moral questions that underpin our society and human interaction as a whole: What is equality? What is the function of art? What is the value of marital fidelity? Can war be good? Is there anything to believe in anymore?
Through Faircloth, a character whose history is very much like his own, Auchincloss creates a worthwhile study of a character who has lived through the bulk of a century and resigns himself to the conclusion that he's probably lived too long.
Unlike his creator, though, Faircloth repeatedly abandons his aspirations to write books, and finds that others with artistic passions similarly allow themselves to be stifled by the world around them. In the end, Faircloth desperately wants to feel good about how he has lived, which is, serf or not, a fairly universal desire. MEMO: Renee Ellen Olander is a poet who teaches literature at Old Dominion
University and lives in Norfolk. by CNB