I know I said I would cover all of the books Smithy reads, but it turns out that we dont actually know much about one of them. In chapter 29, we see Smithy browsing the Lovella Loveland books. He says that he had "never heard of Lovella Loveland, which wasn't a surprise, because Iggy was the first book [he] had read in years. Smithy counts forty titles, lists a few, and notes that each cover had had "a drawing of a beautiful woman, her full breasts ripping and pushing to escape her shirt fabric, and standing over her was a man, a bulging, heavy sort of man." As we brought up in class, the book with the woman whose face and defiant expression resemble Norma's catches his eye. He buys it, although he doesn't actually tell us the name of the book.
As far as I can tell, the next time he mentions his reading is on page 201 when he is talking to Norma. Presumably, he lost his old book (the Norma faced girl one) in the car accident. He tells her that he bought a book called Ringo by the same author as Iggy. So we never really hear much about this Lovella Loveland book. So without further adieu, I will move on to Ringo.
On page 207, he tells us more about Ringo. He says that he didn't have to get into reading shape again like he did with Iggy. Smithy describes Ringo in some detail:
"Like Iggy, it was the story of a guy who has a good and interesting life despite all the odds that ares stacked against him. Ringo was a cowboy in 1900 Wyoming who had lost his left leg and right arm in an accident. Even though some of the other cowboys made fun of him, he relearned how to ride as well as anybody and fell in love with an Indian girl. named Doris Redleaf who had gone to Carlyle Indian College in Pennsylvania and had come back to Wyoming to teach little Indians English. It was, I guess, a heartwarming story. I wondered, if I were Ringo, could I have taken all that he did?"
Ringo loses an arm and a leg, and it looks like all hope is lost for him. His fellow cowboys make fun of him, but, he perseveres in relearning how to ride. At the end of the book, he sits taller in the saddle than anybody else, and is able to ride again, even it takes him a bit longer to get up there. Smithy's life falls apart as he grows fat and worsens his condition as a chain smoker and alcoholic. But he gets his act together and rediscovers his old self, just like Ringo. He starts riding his old bike and sheds his weight, quits smoking, and quits drinking. just like Ringo learning to ride his horse again. The similarities are very clear.
On page 236, Smithy finally hints at the logical between himself, Ringo and Iggy. He imagines how Harold Becker, the author would describe him: a little flowery, but very majestically. He says "Iggy, with all the prejudice and stuff from being black in 1878, never felt sorry for himself at all. And Ringo, with one arm and one leg, sat taller in the saddle than anyone. It just took him a lot longer to get up there. I didn't have anything to overcome, except maybe my fat ass--which dropped off somewhere in Missouri, or at least part of it did."
I think that the comparisons are quite obvious in this novel with a lot of the novels but I just loved when he described himself as one of these heroes. I think it showed that his self confidence was actually on the rise for once even if it was a joke.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that we never hear about the Lovella Loveland book again--one wonders if McLarty included it once just for the joke. Given our discomfort with Smithy's breast-obsession (see Claire's blog and the long string of comments under her post on this topic), we should all be glad he doesn't give us detailed reports as he reads this one. There are likely a wealth of "heaving bosoms" on hand, given the genre.
ReplyDeleteIt's possible he does lose it in the chaos surrounding the accident. Or maybe he does read it, but he's just too embarrassed to mention it. I'd prefer to think he finds his attention more strongly drawn by the other books, which have a more significant bearing on his own story and how he understands it.