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On Glory's Course
At first glance Fonthill seems to be a conservative big/little town of the pre-Repeal 1930s. Its shuttered houses are thick with sinful cigarette smoke; its inhabitants drink medicinally and gossip tirelessly. The queen bee of this sexually freighted hive is the faded and fallen beauty Adele Bevington. For it is Adele who is the final arbiter of Fonthill's manners and morals, and this in spite of the fact that she is unequivocally a woman with a past, one who goes to the movies in the afternoon and receives gentlemen callers at all hours of the night.
Adele is seeking the son she never knew, a quest that will enmesh each of her loyal subjects: the beautiful but impecunious Elaine Cottrell, whose two sons will vie for the favors—real and imagined—of their fabulously bejeweled monarch; the eavesdropping Widow Hughes, who is mostly dotty; Val Dougherty, an ice-man who pays dearly for his forbidden love; and Keith Gresham, who has a great capacity for love but has lost the means of its attainment in the trenches of the Great War. It is Keith who will call into question Adele's pursuit of her heart's desire.
Taken as one, these wondrous characters are drawn into a universal tangle, one of long dormant or precocious promiscuity, of skewed proprieties and refreshingly boisterous laughter. It is a measure of James Purdy's art that he has found a universality among this singular lot; in his equally singular fashion, Mr. Purdy has once again moved us—even against our wills—to look inward.
—From the first-edition dust jacket.
Adele is seeking the son she never knew, a quest that will enmesh each of her loyal subjects: the beautiful but impecunious Elaine Cottrell, whose two sons will vie for the favors—real and imagined—of their fabulously bejeweled monarch; the eavesdropping Widow Hughes, who is mostly dotty; Val Dougherty, an ice-man who pays dearly for his forbidden love; and Keith Gresham, who has a great capacity for love but has lost the means of its attainment in the trenches of the Great War. It is Keith who will call into question Adele's pursuit of her heart's desire.
Taken as one, these wondrous characters are drawn into a universal tangle, one of long dormant or precocious promiscuity, of skewed proprieties and refreshingly boisterous laughter. It is a measure of James Purdy's art that he has found a universality among this singular lot; in his equally singular fashion, Mr. Purdy has once again moved us—even against our wills—to look inward.
—From the first-edition dust jacket.
378 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1984
82 people want to read
About the author
James Purdy
71 books140 followersJames Otis Purdy was an American novelist, short-story writer, poet, and playwright who, from his debut in 1956, published over a dozen novels, and many collections of poetry, short stories, and plays. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages and in 2013 his short stories were collected in The Complete Short Stories of James Purdy.
He has been praised by writers as diverse as Edward Albee, James M. Cain, Lillian Hellman, Francis King, Marianne Moore, Dorothy Parker, Dame Edith Sitwell, Terry Southern, Gore Vidal (who described Purdy as "an authentic American genius"), Jonathan Franzen (who called him, in Farther Away, "one of the most undervalued and underread writers in America"), A.N. Wilson, and both Jane Bowles and Paul Bowles.
Purdy was the recipient of the Morton Dauwen Zabel Fiction Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1993) and was nominated for the 1985 PEN/Faulkner Award for his novel On Glory's Course (1984). In addition, he won two Guggenheim Fellowships (1958 and 1962), and grants from the Ford Foundation (1961), and Rockefeller Foundation.
He worked as an interpreter, and lectured in Europe with the United States Information Agency.
He has been praised by writers as diverse as Edward Albee, James M. Cain, Lillian Hellman, Francis King, Marianne Moore, Dorothy Parker, Dame Edith Sitwell, Terry Southern, Gore Vidal (who described Purdy as "an authentic American genius"), Jonathan Franzen (who called him, in Farther Away, "one of the most undervalued and underread writers in America"), A.N. Wilson, and both Jane Bowles and Paul Bowles.
Purdy was the recipient of the Morton Dauwen Zabel Fiction Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1993) and was nominated for the 1985 PEN/Faulkner Award for his novel On Glory's Course (1984). In addition, he won two Guggenheim Fellowships (1958 and 1962), and grants from the Ford Foundation (1961), and Rockefeller Foundation.
He worked as an interpreter, and lectured in Europe with the United States Information Agency.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 22, 2025
[November 2025 - I realised while correcting some grammatical errors in this review that I really said nothing specific about this novel and considered making alterations to correct this, then I decided against it. The only thing I want any reader of this review to come away with is a desire, no, a need to react like Anthony Blanche in Brideshead Revisited when he hears about Charles Ryder's 'Unhealthy pictures' and screams 'Take me to Charles' unhealthy pictures'. That is the response I want my review to engender so I decided against altering my review].
How to review a novel which is extraordinary, by an author who is one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century in English or any other language? Superlatives seem inadequate, mere praise just trite. It took me way too long to discover this author but once I did I knew that he was something special - like booze, drugs or sex - you may not handle it well the first time but you know that each new encounter will add depth to the experience and to yourself.
It always happens that the novels which mean the most to me leave me tongue tied - again like the first overwhelming knowledge of love/lust which leaves you with nothing to say (thank god it happened to me before we all decided to mouth pornographic cliches and in many cases actually believe we were expressing something with them). Purdy doesn't need words about him or his works he needs to be read - everything is in the reading.
One thing I will say - Purdy is not in the 'southern Gothic tradition' and that this label is frequently applied by American reviewers who thus demonstrate the paucity of their own knowledge and experience of their country. Purdy's world is that of the Midwest, of the flat Ohio plains and its small cities/towns which had an oil boom in the late 19th century and then settled back into ordinariness. I lived there and though those towns had changed greatly since Purdy emerged from them in the 1920's their underlying grotesqueness were unchanged. They exuded a conformist propriety over a cesspit of unimaginable sin - and it would be sin because they were all church dominated - and hypocrisy supporting a privileged elite whose dominance of an underclass kept stupid so it wouldn't even know how badly they were exploited. Fifty years later that time can still give me nightmares. Maybe that is why I love Purdy - I know where he comes from (up to very recently you wouldn't even find Purdy mentioned amongst the famous sons of his hometown - his death changed that, eventually).
How to review a novel which is extraordinary, by an author who is one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century in English or any other language? Superlatives seem inadequate, mere praise just trite. It took me way too long to discover this author but once I did I knew that he was something special - like booze, drugs or sex - you may not handle it well the first time but you know that each new encounter will add depth to the experience and to yourself.
It always happens that the novels which mean the most to me leave me tongue tied - again like the first overwhelming knowledge of love/lust which leaves you with nothing to say (thank god it happened to me before we all decided to mouth pornographic cliches and in many cases actually believe we were expressing something with them). Purdy doesn't need words about him or his works he needs to be read - everything is in the reading.
One thing I will say - Purdy is not in the 'southern Gothic tradition' and that this label is frequently applied by American reviewers who thus demonstrate the paucity of their own knowledge and experience of their country. Purdy's world is that of the Midwest, of the flat Ohio plains and its small cities/towns which had an oil boom in the late 19th century and then settled back into ordinariness. I lived there and though those towns had changed greatly since Purdy emerged from them in the 1920's their underlying grotesqueness were unchanged. They exuded a conformist propriety over a cesspit of unimaginable sin - and it would be sin because they were all church dominated - and hypocrisy supporting a privileged elite whose dominance of an underclass kept stupid so it wouldn't even know how badly they were exploited. Fifty years later that time can still give me nightmares. Maybe that is why I love Purdy - I know where he comes from (up to very recently you wouldn't even find Purdy mentioned amongst the famous sons of his hometown - his death changed that, eventually).
April 18, 2019
Purdy creates a claustrophobic small town bubbling with secrets and resentment in the 1930s. Adele labeled is looking for her long lost son given up for adoption. Elaine is looking for a suitor and love. Her one son Alec wants to get the hell out of the town (his voice may be the ticket) and Ned the other is caught in a situation that may end up trapping him.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 18, 2010
I'm not really sure what to think about this book. A story about small town Ohio life in 1913. Was it a parody? Did I miss something here? Did Purdy so hate his small town life that he threw everything (bestiality, incest, unwed mothers, widows, snarky lawyers,homosexuality)but the kitchen sink into it? What was the point? And if he wrote one more that so-and-so kissed another so-and-so on the mouth (he made a big deal out of that) I was gonna scream!
This book reminded me of a Fassbinder film...you are curiously drawn to watch/read it even though you don't like any one of the characters.
The last two pages were amazing!
This book reminded me of a Fassbinder film...you are curiously drawn to watch/read it even though you don't like any one of the characters.
The last two pages were amazing!
March 1, 2009
Everybody judges everybody in this story, set in a fictional town in middle American in 1930. With almost every taboo of that era (and this one, in at least two cases) hinted at or out-right admitted to, no character can take the high road. The plot is pure soap opera, but it's well written soap opera.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews