A Day Late

by Carolyn Doty

A psychological drama and the author's first novel

Hardcover

Published April 17, 1980

Reviews

[Daniel Hunt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book for a specific reason - Carolyn Doty was one of my Creative Writing instructors back in undergraduate school at the University of Kansas. I had never read anything of hers. Keep in mind, this was a first novel. It is a clumsy character piece with no characters to really like or cheer. Doty does what many first-time writers of fiction seem to do, and tries to shock and add character depth of complication through unnecessary sexual drama. The writing is not particularly smooth either. But it does remind me of a novel of a friend of hers that I read for that class, which I told her I did not like. In retrospect, these were similar works with heavy-handed drama and very little character movement. Maybe it was a type of style of the day. Worth remembering for me was Professor Doty's response to my negative review of her friend's novel. There was nothing personal about it. She accepted it as it was and gave me a pretty good grade. Even then I thought that was classy and professional and worthy of emulation. So, I enjoyed this novel for what it was, and I recognize it as an experimental type of character piece vice a traditional novel with a clear plot and through lines. You may enjoy this as a character piece if you enjoy that type of novel. - A tip of the old hat to Carolyn, gone but not forgotten, an author who spent most of her adult life helping others develop their writing at the expense, perhaps, of her own writing dreams. Peace.