Natural Selection

by Frederick Barthelme

Peter Wexler is 40 and obsessed with what's wrong in the world, including his marriage. Deciding that a change of scenery might help, Peter leaves his wife and their son in search of a resolution to the confusion, estrangement, fatigue, and adultery that have confounded his life.

Genres: Fiction, Novels

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Barthelme's works are known for their focus on the landscape of the New South. Along with his reputation as a minimalist, together with writers Raymond Carver, Ann Beattie, Amy Hempel, and Mary Robison, Barthelme's work has also been described by terms such as "dirty realism" and "K-mart realism."He published his first short story in The New Yorker,and has claimed that a rotisserie chicken helped him understand that he needed to write about ordinary people.He has moved away from the postmodern stylings of his older brother, Donald Barthelme, though his brother's influence can be seen in his earliest works, Rangoon and War and War.
Barthelme was thirty-three year editor and visionary of Mississippi Review, known for recognizing and publishing once new talents such as Larry Brown, Curtis Sittenfeld, and Amy Hempel early in their careers.

Reviews

[Nathan "N.R." Gaddis]

It has been several years now since I last read a book by Donald's brother Frederick. My introduction to Frederick was simultaneous with my introduction to Donald, via John Barth's praise. I suspect slightly, due to a kind of freundlichkeit loyalty, that Barth simply could not also mention Donald's brother as a most excellent writer at each mention of Donald as a profound shifter of the short story. BUT, no, Frederick's books resemble not in the least his elder brother's. But, yes, I do think they are quite excellent, at least the better of them. Suburban realism? Perhaps. Whatever it is that Frederick writes, it is not the customary thing for my reading habits. Yet, why is he neither read nor marked as to-read by any/many of my Friends? Is it Donald's shadow? Perhaps. But it might also be that suburban realism thing I'm guessing at. I don't know if that suburban realism thing has been done to death or not, but what I do know is that Frederick worked through a development of his own kind of writing, that he could not simply rewrite his older brother's writing, but effortfully developed a voice of his own, independent. I do hope it's too cheap to say that he's just a Carver knock-off. But he may be. But I hope to doubt he's not. But then again, if it's of the highest quality knock-off, that wouldn't be so bad now would it?

So and now I'm not reviewing this book. But perhaps it's that book of Frederick's which I'd first recommend to a newcomer to his books and I'd like to see some newcomers review one or more of his books so I might read your reviews and learn a bit something more about his books. His The Brothers is my next-on-deck-Frederick.

[W.T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of all of his novels, this is the richest. The transparent and honest emotion within it is startling and searing.

[Riley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pushing a four for me, but I can't ignore parts that feel a little too incoherent. Loved the ending, really did it for me.

[Nick Grammos · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be completed and updated

No one captures the immediate world in all its banality, oppressive and coercive forces, and the unfortunate characters who must negotiate them while they pass through it as well as Barthelme. There is little certainty in the actions of Peter. He is unclear about so many things, whether its the quality of food in the supermarket or why he loves Lily, though he does, or how to parent Charles. Characters appear here and there with clarity, but you get the feeling its fraudulent.

[William Adams · Rating 2 out of 5]

White, successful, employed, middle-class, American, suburban guy is annoyed at popular culture. His wife and kid become exasperated with his constant complaining – about TV, magazines, people at work, politicians, and advertisements.

His grumbling is sometimes funny, consistently ironic, sarcastic, and erudite, but the character comes across as manufactured. Also, the setting is pre-internet so what he perceives as media intrusiveness is laughably bucolic compared to today’s immersive hypermedia.

The wife and kid are mirrors and backboards for him, not characters in themselves. They also speak in set-pieces, not like real people. The unexpected, violent ending is so contrived, it’s interesting as a writerly aberration.

For disenchantment with popular culture, DeLillo did it a thousand times better and funnier in White Noise. This is but a pale shadow, mildly amusing, just interesting enough for a skim. I picked it up to become acquainted with Frederick Barthelme, who is a noted writer. Now I am acquainted.

[Joep · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nasty ending. Felt the characters could have used more fleshing out but for the sexually frustrated adult adolescent of a narrator it suited.
This novel is a set of scenes which all revolve around I guess what you would call a mid-life crisis. A very American crisis indeed. Never had the chance to grow up and take control of his own life so he becomes a loud mouth for indignation and violence, passively dishing out a war of words against the American cultural vacuum that breeds him (talk about biting the hand) while safely couched in a suburban landscape or no responsibility. That is until the end. All things change with the end.

[Mit Rennat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trying to ride the waves of his big brother Donald, Rick doesn't do much to differ. This book, as well as many of his others that I haven't read but sampled, is flat. No emotional attachment of the narrator to anyone or anything in the story. It is as if the author is trying to play at something, as if his intellect is so beyond the readers', that never really pans out. The ending seems so forced that it's like the last half of the book is possibly part of another story he was working on and decided to smash it together with this go-no-where masterpiece.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frederick Barthelme is a wonderfully subtle writer, rich with the rhythms of mundane yet witty life, punctuated with drama, both outer and within. A man who struggles against the world finds what he really wants, and isn't that worth a little tragedy?

[Sazuru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wowed by technique, precision, writerly taste--on the other hand, it's a bleak, sad, macho book about being bleak, sad, macho.

[Mabowd · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh!! Did not like this book at all!

[Ginger Hill · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was a little put off by this story. I didn't like the ending or the message. I wouldn't recommend this one.

[Michael D Mitchell]

More of the same unhappy, disaffected male character from this author.

[Angel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Abandoné en la página 75

[David Vanness]

My copy is hardback with 213 pages. Similar dark cover.