Ladies of the Rachmaninoff Eyes

by Henry Van Dyke

Dust jacket design by Ronald Clyne. His first novel. The story of two elderly widows who have developed a kinship beyond the boundaries of class, wealth, and race, by virtue of their close association with one another for more than thirty years.

Genres: Fiction, Queer, Classics, LGBT, African American, Literary Fiction, Literature

160 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1966

About the author

Henry Van Dyke (1928 - 2011) was born in Allegan, Michigan, and grew up in Montgomery, Alabama, where his parents were professors at Alabama State College. He served in the Army in occupied Germany, playing flute in the 427th Marching Band. There he abandoned his early ambition to become a concert pianist and began to write. In 1958, after attending the University of Michigan on the G.I. Bill and living in Ann Arbor, he moved to New York, where he spent the rest of his life. Henry taught creative writing part-time at Kent State University from 1969 until his retirement in 1993, and was the author of four novels, including Blood of Strawberries, a sequel to Ladies of the Rachmaninoff Eyes.

(Source: https://www.mcnallyeditions.com/henry...)

Reviews

[♑︎♑︎♑︎ ♑︎♑︎♑︎]

I was overwhelmed by its relentless wittiness. Reading it is like being in a steam room, or on a roller coaster, wow, this is so exhilaratingly good, and exactly where I want to be, but eventually my mood changes to ‘get me outta here’

[WndyJW · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent book from McNally Editions. I tagged this book lgbtq and race issues, but that’s not what the book is about, in fact the most remarkable thing about this unusual story is its unremarkable inclusivity. Written by a Henry Van Dyke, a gay Black man, and published in 1965, the Civil Rights era in the U.S., I expected there to be bridge building or insights into race in America, but there’s really none of that. The fact that Oliver, from whose pov the story is told, is a gay Black teenager and that his Aunt Harriet’s employer, Mrs. Klein, is a wealthy, White Jewish woman, aren’t important to the story of a week in the life of this dysfunctional, functioning family of sorts.

The humor comes from the 30 year, oddly co-dependent relationship of the two old widows, Aunt Harry and Mrs. Klein, Oliver’s de facto mothers, who bicker, banter, battle, support and praise each other, they are each other’s most loyal confident and the bane of the other’s existence all in the same conversation.
The other characters, Mrs. Klein’s son Jerome, his wife Patricia Jo, and the sex crazed cook, Della, who cannot understand why she fails in her attempts to seduce the poetry loving Oliver, bring added humor as the supporting cast.

When the two old women invite to the house Maurice le Fleur, a self-styled warlock, to conduct a seance in order to contact Sargent Klein, the beloved elder son who five years earlier committed suicide in NYC, Oliver alone is determined to protect the women, Della included, from this obvious con man, which lands Oliver in some outrageous situations.

I recommend this book, it’s touching, funny, a little heartbreaking, but mostly it is very entertaining.

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such an idiosyncratic, one-of-a-kind book that I feel a bit curmudgeonly not giving it 5 stars - and until about halfway through, I was thinking it deserved such. But my enthusiasm began to wane about then - and a rather disappointing climax/dénouement (and a penultimate chapter of animal cruelty I certainly could have done without!) made me reconsider.

Others have likened this to the works of Ronald Firbank (whom, alas, I haven't read - yet!), but to me Van Dyke seems like a black Southern version of Patrick Dennis -and indeed, the titular characters - Aunt 'Harry' Gibbs and Mrs. Etta Klein reminded me in their boozy bickering banter of Auntie Mame and Vera Charles! Belle Thompson also bore whiffs of Patrick's own Belle Poitrine from Little Me: The Intimate Memoirs of that Great Star of Stage, Screen and Television, Belle Poitrine.

It still seems rather bizarre that a comedic book by and about a black queer man could have been written back in 1961, and I'm glad it's being rediscovered through the recent reprinting. I DID enjoy it enough that I'm moving on to the sequel, and we'll see how well the adventures of Oliver hold up in a second serving.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure: The author was once my creative writing professor and briefly mentored me as I wrote my first novel. That being said, I can't believe it took me so long to read his first novel, published two years before I was born. It's not an easy book to find in print, and I think that's a real shame, because this is an important book.
It mixes tragedy and comedy deftly as it follows Oliver, a young man struggling with his identity as a black man and his sexuality. He lives with two widows-- his aunt Harry and her former employer and now companion Mrs. Klein, a wealthy Jewish woman. Neither woman is handling the suicide of Mrs. Klein's son Sargent at all, but this makes the situation ripe for a con artist who claims to be a "warlock" and offers to conduct a séance to commune with the dead son. Chaos ensues, of course.
I highly recommend this book.

[Jesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

A genuine delight, & one of my favorite literary discoveries of the year. Delightfully written—Van Dyke is a master comedic stylist—it whirls through an ostensibly frivolous story that, like the great screwball classics of old Hollywood, withholds its true emotional weight until the last act.

One of the most remarkable, albeit subtle, aspects about Van Dyke's story & style is how lightly it negotiates so many weighty topics swirling just outside the frame of the the text itself. As a queer black American man writing at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, the pressure to produce a realist novel with Social Purpose must have been enormous—even in more carefree contexts situating oneself directly within the high camp tradition of Ronald Firbank & Oscar Wilde is often regarded with deep suspicion.

Which is not to say that Van Dyke ignores these factors; indeed, the more the story progressed I felt like he was acutely aware of them. Like Wilde, he inverts expected behaviors & social expectations for satirical purposes & comedic effect, carefully accumulating little absurdities until it threatens to destabilize entire social hierarchies. For me the unexpected (unrealistic?) racial dynamics between these characters living in the mid century American South only drew my attention to them all the more. A similar strategy is employed re: sexuality, as most of the sexual situations teenage Oliver finds himself entangled in are heterosexual, with his implied queerness is primarily signaled instead through his snobbishness & intense Francophilia.

Also a special shoutout to the household cook Nella Mae, a deliciously bawdy character who initially operates as comedic relief but whose trajectory, like all of these characters, eventually turns deeply poignant. I kept thinking about her a lot, & hope things turned out okay for her in the end.

[Afterward I also read the continuing adventures of Oliver, 1969's Blood of Strawberries , & loved it as well.]

"'When you get older'—and before she finished I wanted to protest; I was pretty sick of that old chestnut, dropped by the aged (Benson, Aunt Harry, and now Patricia Jo) whenever they were in a tight spot; it was a dirty ploy, this more-experienced-than-thou weapon used by elders to win the game when they were losing—'you'll understand that one has to believe a little bit in almost everything.'"

[Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Baroque, recursive dilettantism filtered exquisitely through the outlying force multipliers of the Black Arts Movement. If the ‘movement’ had needed its Henry James, and Henry James been one frightfully funny sonofabitch, it would’ve been Van Dyke. But it didn’t and he wasn’t. As it stands, that leaves Van Dyke as an absolute singularity in letters.

[Minnia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked up this new McNally Editions - which are just a beautiful tactile experience to hold and read, by the way - on a whim, intrigued by the premise of a gay black teen growing up with his black housekeeper aunt and an old Jewish widow. It’s one of the most original plots I’ve come across, and all the characters are compelling, with dialogue that draws you in. All in all it was a delightful reading experience - funny and moving at the same time.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really unique premise with such vibrant characters. Just as humorous as it is emotional

[Iris Zhao · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really should stop buying books simply because the covers are pretty 😅

Ladies was so intriguing conceptually—the way Van Dyke shrugs off topics like queerness and racial hostility with nonchalance, how it was camp over tragedy/satire. Yet, all that was promised fell short because of major structural issues. Plot spent ages building up to something but said“plot twist” did not land. And the lightness over substance didn’t speak to me. Like it was trying too hard to dilute the emotional weight of its own themes.

Looking back at the blurb from The New York Times: “His debt to Truman Capote, James Baldwin, Tennessee Williams…”Hmmm, big overstatement.

UPDATE: I was ready to give this 4 stars until I reached the last third and people started randomly dying

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very Truman Capote, midwestern gothic, tragicomedy vibes that leans a lot more on the comedy than the tragedy. This was super reminiscent of Other Voices, Other Rooms to me— a queer teen coming of age while also discovering the histories and complex interior lives of the eccentric elderly relatives who are raising him.

McNally Editions are quickly becoming a go to for me for curating undiscovered (by me) modern classics.

[sweet sugar · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a strange but fascinating novel. It did not go where I was expecting it to, but that's not a bad thing. A couple awkward transitions here and there, but overall, I really liked this book! Van Dyke's prose is lovely, and there's a host of great, odd characters in here that made it easy to stay engaged.

[Ivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will read this again. I'll give this to friends. I ordered a hardbound edition for my library. This book made me weep. 16-year-old Oliver resides with his Aunt Harriett and her companion/employer Mrs. Klein, elderly ladies who bicker and fuss, they are haunted (figuratively) by Mrs. Klein's gay son - a suicide. There is a libidinous cook, a deaf gardener, a suspect medium and a seance. There is wry humor, arresting prose and, finally, pathos. I found each character unique and endearing. I've read the last thirty pages three times. Why isn't Henry Van Dyke better known? Bravo McNally Editions for bringing this back out.

[Minna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Omg just realised I can log this book because it’s a rediscovered classic so therefore PUBLISHED. I’m humiliated by the state of my reading challenge but I would like to say this is the 13th book I’ve read for work since I started two months ago. Rose says they shouldn’t count because I’m paid to read them but I counter that I have read half of them not during work hours. I’ve already written my report so I can’t really be bothered to rehash my thoughts but it was a fun read, very novel to have come out of the 1950s, but ultimately light on substance, a little weak on structure and really could have been funnier. 3.5.

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started off very "light-decadent," as promised on the back cover. I liked the clear, simple characters. But the ending was suddenly too sentimental.

I'll probably try to read The Dead Piano soon.

[Ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is it about Michigan and surprisingly good 20th century forgotten gay novels?

[yue ☽ · Rating 4 out of 5]

actually obsessed w this... gentle & piercing satire abt race and queerness and also astrology from 1965... the peacock chapter had me very emotional!

[Quill (thecriticalreader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 stars

“The insane comedy had a tinge of grist in it: we seemed, both of us, to have been playing out some grotesque pageantry of our lives; Della was there, nude to the world, exposed, vulnerable, and gluttonous; and I, dressed and harnessed, was locked in a dark closet.”

This book’s prose is magnificent. It’s worth reading for this alone. However, be warned that it can be confusing at times. Van Dyke tends throw the reader into scenes without much explanation or exposition. The language is a peculiar mixture of witty intellectual allusion mixed with mid-twentieth-century American slang.

Van Dyke’s willingness to defy expectations makes this book a fascinating read. It follows Oliver, a seventeen-year-old Black boy destined for the Ivy League. He was raised by his great-Aunt Harry and a wealthy Jewish widow named Mrs. Klein; Mrs. Klein is technically Aunt Harry’s employer, but their relationship more closely resembles that of a toxic married couple who can only express their love through contention and pettiness. Oliver serves as a sort of surrogate for Mrs. Klein’s deceased son, Sargeant, a position that complicates his relationship with her adult living son, Jerome. Oliver spends his days writing poetry and dodging the guileless but still predatory sexual advances of Della, Mrs. Klein’s Black maid. Their cloistered existence is disrupted when Mrs. Klein hires a snake oil spiritual medium to perform a séance so that she can talk to Sargeant’s from beyond the grave. Although Oliver is primarily concerned with this intruder’s apparent intention to steal Mrs. Klein’s valuables, the séance ends up bringing the layered contradictions and tensions of the characters’ relationships to light in an explosive fashion. The mounting absurdities of these topsy-turvy social dynamics could be employed for pure comedic effect, but Van Dyke doesn’t let the reader fall into the lazy comfort of satire. Instead, he employs the irony to needling, tragicomic effect that unsettles as much as it amuses.

Oddly enough, this book reminds me a lot of The Great Gatsby. The main character, Oliver, is a Nick Carraway-like figure who mostly serves to observe the unhinged behavior of those around him. He’s exceptionally passive as a protagonist but his perspective lends dimension to the story and its themes. The characters’ messy behavior, complicated by their respective identities and web of relationships, creates a slow-burn dramatic tension. Real-world social and political issues are only hinted at or obliquely mentioned but nevertheless form the backbone of the book’s thematic weight. Also—everyone is drunk most of the time.

This book’s major flaw is that it gets too intoxicated by its own melodrama and symbolic significance, especially toward the end. Nevertheless, it’s absolutely worth a read.

[Lola Post · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Ann Arbor and gay people!!!

Good book, took me a minute to like it in the beginning but as I kept reading I didn’t want to put it down. Super lighthearted plot and it did end up getting sad in the ending but overall very good. Also it was written by a Michigan alumni!!! (That’s why I chose to read it tbh). I was shocked to find out it was published in 1965 because it was definitely opposite of the stereotypes at the time.

[Bridget S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so stupid I loved it

[Joey Lukner · Rating 5 out of 5]

A phenomenal comedy about a narrator who is wise beyond his years. The entire premise of holding a seance to communicate with the dead is so good, and the climax of the book is perfectly done. I would not change a single thing. I love the characters’ love for each other and the amazing representation of ethnicities, sexuality, and gender

[Marcus Todd]

Trying to keep it cool in this restaurant. I need a hug. They told me this book would be funny!!

[Bel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great McNally Editions reprint that took off at a sprint and wound down soberly. It made me feel so many things and I finished with a lingering quietness and a hollow inside that complicated books often leave me with. It was a comedy yet also, a deep contemplation. You don’t know how meaningful seemingly mundane interactions with the people in your daily life can be until they’re no longer with you.

It’s even more meaningful for me when I read about the author’s background including his love of playing the piano and Rachmaninoff. It would have been nice for him to have had more recognition for his novels during his lifetime and I wonder how it might have been to be a student in one of his creative writing classes.

• ”…those eyes so like old pictures of Rachmaninoff’s eyes.”
• ”…to educate me, buy me Chesterfield coats, English tweeds, first editions of dull classics.”
• ”Mrs. Klein said, like la dame aux caméllias (chubby-style), ‘Must we?’”
• ”Her hands flew up from the Louis Quinze and made fist clinches in the air, a gesture that seemed monstrously dramatic and not at all suitable for her metabolism.”
•” She slapped salad dressing on the tongue sandwich with bravura and with a fascinating inefficiency.”
• ”…but the brief and violent activity proved too much for him: he fell forward to his knees, then to his face, on the stones of the patio. He lay there in squalor and bliss.”
• ”From deep within the back of the house came Della’s voice: ‘How long, how long, have that evenin’ train been gone…’ It was barely audible, less so than the sound of the clock, but the pain of it could reach the heart.”

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

What an interesting novel for when it was written. It had a very Tennesse Williams-ish feel to the characters and setting. I didn’t love it, because it made me feel that sense of waiting for a payoff feeling that never quite materialized.

But I loved the last paragraph. The whole novel was worth it for that last paragraph - everyone who has ever been grief stricken, a teenager, a freshman, nervous, alone or set adrift can relate to that last paragraph.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not really a "review" per se, but I think this book ties very neatly together, and the third part is excellent. I wasn't quite expecting this book to wind up as much of a coming-of-age-wake-up-call as it turned out to be. However, I thought that direction suited the novel. And, of course, the closing line will live with me for a little while, I suspect.

[Simone · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75/5

Conceptually, this was SUCH a unique book. A farce of a slice of life / character study. As I’m wont to complain about, I wish it went a little crazier and leaned more into the premise of the seance.

[lilimads444 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Masterfully towing the line between heart-wrenching and hilarious. I truly belief everybody should at least give this book a go. I cannot express my heart break over this book not even having 150 ratings :(
Truly a lost gem more people need to discover!!

[Eliza Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not sure if this was derived from a play, but it reads like one. Mainly told through dialogue, the story is no doubt enticing and like nothing I’ve read before. But I found it hard to follow and was confused for a large portion of it.

[G · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's interesting that so much of the marketing and many of the reviews and even the introduction discuss this as a witty, irreverent novel where American race relations weren't much considered. It IS a witty, irreverent novel! But if you go into it expecting a light comedy I think you'll be surprised - and there are quite a lot of observations about race, actually, in some devastating and subtle, and not so subtle, ways.

See: Jerome treating Oliver like "his mother's toy," a charity case to prove her enlightened bona fides. See: Bella the town courtesan flirting with Oliver yet reacting with alarm when he attempts to take her up on it, because she's never actually slept with a Black man before and doesn't intend to start. See: "Della ... had always proclaimed me white, and though I knew better, I never thought of being any color, or rarely, and now that [Belle] had put it this way, given this reason, placed this obstacle in front of what I deemed an easy seduction, I felt not pain or dismay but a curious loss."

See: Aunt Harriet and Mrs Klein are so close it goes beyond friendship, so codependent they quite literally can't survive without the other, are the heart and soul of the novel - and yet, in her greatest moment of stress and grief, Mrs Klein calls Harriet the worst thing she can (yes, that word) and it's a betrayal Harriet attempts to forgive, but forgiveness doesn't change the fact of the betrayal, and in a way it kills them both.

It's not a polemic. It's hopeful! Etta Klein and Harriet really are each other's lives. Oliver really does look to them both, his aunt who's Black and Mrs Klein who's white and Jewish, as beloved mother figures. He really did grow up in such an atmosphere of acceptance (mostly) that he can think of himself as not "being any color" (until he can't). Harriet really is as much Sargeant's mother as Etta - certainly we think of her relationship with him, and with Etta, much more than we ever think about the fathers and husbands. And there's plenty to laugh at. The old ladies getting plastered on rum in the pantry, Jerome's drunken escapades. A fake warlock gets beaten half to death by two old women in a field. Della's determination to bed Oliver and then work in a Chicago brothel. But it's not haha laughter, exactly. It's laugh so you don't cry laughter. Sargeant laughed himself to tears just before he slit his wrists.

There are reflections on homosexuality - Oliver's terror at what the facts of Sargeant's death mean for him, ABOUT him - and being Jewish - Jerome will never be able to supplant his dear dead brother in his mother's heart, even if Sargeant was gay, because Jerome is not some saintly half-mythical figure far away but your average slob with a drinking problem and a goyisch wife.* And the novel covers all of this in a snappy, deceptively light style with an interesting use of repetition and a plot that starts at the end and Fibonacci's around.

Also, as the blurb mentions, I can see the influence this had on Oreo, another unfairly overlooked classic having a well-deserved return to the public eye.

*Her scene weeping with Oliver, and Bertram's scene realizing Mrs Klein is nearing her end, gave such depth in so few words to these minor characters! taking aggressive notes

[Pascale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unusual and amusing. Told from the point of view of Oliver, an academically gifted Black teenager, the book tells the story of the last months of 2 widows, Etta Klein, who is Jewish, and her Black housekeeper and bosom friend Harriet Gibbs. Both ladies are still in mourning for Etta's son Sargeant, who died by suicide, and have transferred all their love to Harriet's nephew Oliver. Strangely enough, Etta's surviving son Jerome has adapted to the situation and doesn't resent Oliver's status in his mother's household. Jerome has a Goy wife, Patricia Jo, and 2 sons who are barely mentioned in the narrative, which starts dramatically with Harriet dropping dead of a heart-attack while giving chase to one Maurice LeFleur. Oliver then recounts how Etta and his aunt invited the self-styled warlock LeFleur to come and hold a séance in the hope of elucidating the reason behind Sargeant's suicide. From the moment LeFleur sets foot in the house, Oliver sizes him up as a charlatan and makes every effort to prevent him from stealing Etta's most valuable jewelry. Initially, he believes that Jerome and his wife are on his side, but then he realizes that they also intend to attend the séance. When the séance is finally held, LeFleur hardly plays a part in it as Harriet seizes the opportunity to reveal all she knows about Sargeant's homosexuality and his disastrous passion for a Black boy. Jerome pays LeFleur for his services and asks him to leave. LeFleur obliges but decamps with Etta's jewelry, which Oliver cannot understand since the only people who knew the hiding place were Etta, Harriet and himself. After Harriet's death, Etta's health declines fast and Jerome chooses to have his mother buried next to her. What's special about this book is the flippant and downright madcap way in which it deals with heavy issues of closeted gay lives, suicide and inter-racial relationships.