In Search Of Satisfaction (1995) - Plot & Excerpts
I'm kind of torn by this book--during some parts, I couldn't wait to turn the next page, but in others, I found it plodding on and my eyes skimming. This isn't an exceptionally long book (my ebook copy had 347 pages), but it felt a lot longer. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. One of the reasons it felt so long is because the author traced the story over many years through many different characters--it was definitely a sprawling story.The book had everything: greed, envy, anger, lust, and love. It started by telling the story of one man, Josehphus, and his two daughters--one black, one passing as white--and the hardships they experienced trying to make it in a harsh world where the rich control everything and the poor break their backs to just to get by. As time passed, their children took over as the focal point to the story, and those who previously functioned as main characters fell off in favor of others. That would be one criticism of the book. Just as I was starting to get interested in one character and his or her story, the author would abruptly switch focus to another. And then when the character was revisited, sometimes the story failed to continue in the same line, so I was kind of left hanging for parts.The book read a bit differently that other family epics, but it's hard to put a finger on why. One reason, perhaps, was the strong overriding shroud of morality. Satan basically functioned as a character, during short sections where the narration switched from the third-person character focus to Satan's thoughts on the contemplation of evil in each specific scenario. At first, I found it jarring when Satan would make his appearance, but as I became more familiar with it, it didn't bother me much.For such a character-driven epic, most of the characters weren't all fleshed out. Carlene, for instance, never seemed anything more than evil incarnate--and maybe that was the point, but even so, she seemed flat. In fact, the only character I can really say I liked was Hosanna (mostly for her fiery early brand of feminism--I especially loved the scolding she gave her off-again boyfriend when he demanded she stop working to get him a drink), but she didn't seem quite so rounded either. There were many (Hosanna, Sally, Richlene) who seemed only "good" and others who were only "bad" (Carlene, Carlton). Not a lot of depth for a character-driven story, but maybe it was less about that and more about a look into morality.
I think J. California Cooper is the kind of writer who you have to love or hate. I happen to love her. Her style of writing is really unique. There's this over-arching spiritual quality to all of her work that is both explicit and implicit. She also has a lot of little nuggets of wisdom and clever literary devices sprinkled throughout her work. Like all great books, you can get something different from her writing every time you read it. "In Search of Satisfaction" has a wonderful cast of rich characters with little stories that you can just fall into and lose yourself.
What do You think about In Search Of Satisfaction (1995)?
All of these characters are looking for satisfaction, which I interpreted as love and independence. But each character seeks this satisfaction through different means, stealing, lying, killing, etc. to get these things.At times I tired of Satan's role in the novel, and Cooper's attention to small things, like the spider living in the windowsill or the bug in the shack. I suppose she was trying to demonstrate that all living things, including the smallest insect are looking for satisfaction, but this technique didn't advance the story for me and, at times, annoyed me.This was the first book I read by Cooper and I think I'll give another one of her novels a shot.
—Shayla
