Seed

by Charles Gilman Norris

Primarily a portrait of a California town, 1890-1930, with a section on birth control inserted.

Genres: Fiction

436 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1930

About the author

brother of Frank Norris and husband of Kathleen Thompson Norris

Reviews

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Last August, I had the good fortune of seeing the 1931 John M. Stahl movie SEED on the big screen, adapted from Charles Norris' book. The movie gripped me, causing me to gasp at a few moments and chew over its themes of balancing family life with career, and marital fidelity. One topic that was touched upon in the movie, but hardly relevant, was the topic of birth control. Seeing that the novel the film was based on posited itself as "A Novel of Birth Control", and seeing how much food for thought the movie gave me, I was anxious to read it, especially as I am a practicing Catholic, and thus I follow the Church's teaching when it comes to sexuality and fertility.

Imagine my surprise to find that the film only captured a small section of this sprawling, multigenerational novel. The film covers a ten year time period...the book covers forty years (the film only covers the last ten years of the book, and then a very different version of the events).

I don't want to go on forever covering the entire book, as in the end while I found it to be a fascinating read, the same basic notes could have been covered in a book half its size. Our hero Bart comes from a massive family, and all the benefits and sorrows that entails. His father was a bastard who tried to cheat on his wife. His mother was overwhelmed with the duties as the female head of the house in the late 1800s. His siblings and cousins fought, confided, and even loved among each other (yes, cousins fall in love in this book, and not much big deal is made of it). As Bart grows older, he eventually finds himself torn between his own blossoming family and his career as a writer. A mistress becomes involved. His desire to curb the number of children he breeds comes at odds with his wife's strict Catholic upbringing.

Eventually all these threads come to a head in two chapters that feel like the author (Norris) is vocalizing his own grievances with a prudish society's slow acceptance of birth control. One chapter has a character go off on a speech about how many of their family members could have been saved from many hardships if they had used birth control more, and in another chapter he has another character go off on a speech about how birth control doesn't solve the base issues with the way people perceive sex, desire, and sacrifice.

Norris is clearly more convinced that birth control is a cultural necessity, but I was happy to see that he made the effort to explore multiple perspectives on the issue. He offers suggestions and arguments, but doesn't land on any hard answers, ultimately closing on a somewhat ambiguous, if hopeful note.

It's a long read that's engaging in moments. I left satisfied, but I think I have an even greater appreciation for the film now (which I wish I could see again, but it's unavailable unless you can find a screening). The book focuses almost solely on Bart and his struggles in fidelity, the movie puts a stronger focus on the family as a whole, including his wife, who the book sympathizes with, but could certainly treat with more agency. A fine read if you settle in for the long haul, though I can't see that I'll ever see myself revisiting it.

[Arthur Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first book I've read by Charles G. Norris, but it certainly won't be the last. Well written and engaging from the start, it's a true epic, chronicling, as it does, 40 years in the development of one family (eventually focusing on one of its members). I was particularly fond of the way the book looked at the first year (and sometimes a little more) of each decade, then, after the story jumped ahead 9 years or so, gradually filled the reader in on what had occurred during the intervening years. The birth control theme (hardly even touched upon during the first half of the novel), got a bit preachy at times but, in fairness to the author, his characters presented convincing arguments on BOTH sides.

[Lemar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this because it was written by my wife's great grandfather but finished it because of the characters. Part of the knock and the charm of this book is that the ideas are now dated. The charm comes from seeing through characters so fully drawn how ideas that are now widely discredited were embraced by real people.

[Wileyoneone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grandma's Book - her favorite-In my library