Status Updates From The Middle of the Journey

The last chapter with its affair and post-sex discussion in the anxious psychological style of the whole novel really reminded me of Proust. It was pretty good too!

Theres a bunch of whatever in here, interspersed with smart observations on social and psycho processes framed as introspections. Its crazy how Trilling could triangulate a relationship from only one of its part (Maxim being based on a real defector of the CPUSA and friend of his). And thats also what a lot of this book in form is about.

enjoying the psychology, the nooks and corners of the processes of the mind; now that the main characters past is completely uncovered I wonder what direction the plot is going. It has the set up of a political thriller, but none of the drive it seems

I like the writing, oscillating between matter-of-fact (maybe a little bit existential) and the dives into a bruised psyche. Things are always as he says they are but that doesnt mean they arent subject to change. Ideas and ideologies are pretty physical things here meaning they are subject to constant change too