The MacGuffin started off strong, but somewhere along the way either he or I, or maybe both of us, got a little tired of the story and lost interest. I thought this might be a failing of the book, but I'm thinking now that it might have been an (un)intentional literary device. I won't explain this one, but read on and maybe you can forget I said it!The MacGuffin is a book about a middle level government bureaucrat (the Commissioner of Roads to be exact), in a small city who begins to believe he is entwined in an intricate plot of conspiracies and deception that involves everyone in his life, from his limo drivers (his job seems to mostly entail riding around in a limo, this is explained in the book) to the woman he ineptly takes as a mistress, to his Rainman like son, the Shiite woman his son hangs out with, his wife and a host of other people all of whom the main character weaves into a complicated mess of intrigue. The guy knows that it's all bullshit, the whole web he's weaved, he knows that this is all in his head, that he's making this all up. Why would someone make all of this up? Why would someone goto all the trouble of creating a very complicated and very time consuming alternate 'existence' (this isn't the best word, but I couldn't think of anything better as i sucked down cranberry juice and stared at the screen for a minute) and then insisted on living his life as if everyone were really involved in a grand conspiracy that might think it necessary to kill him? Basically because this guys life is so boring, he's a middle aged guy who is slightly successful, but not very. His health is in decline, he's never had a sex life he's enjoyed, his son is weird, and he's something of a pedantic blow-hard so he creates an exciting life as a substitute. Even though it's nothing but a story of nothingness that he is creating in the spaces of any intersubjective relationship where ambiguity dwells. Stanley Elkin is a great writer. And somewhere I kind of lost interest in this book, but that's ok I don't hold it against him. I'm fairly certain that this would be a later book (it is, it is, I was right, it's his penultimate novel). There is something resigned in it, like he should have been more than he turned out to be. Not that it is his fault, he just happened to be one of those really great American writers that fame sort of eluded, stuck somewhere between the mainstream fame of the less funny Jewish writer Philip Roth but not quite reaching into the cult / nerdboy land of someone like Thomas Pynchon. From the novels I've read they have all been a) darkly funny and b) satirical portraits of America, but not the haughty New York City / Day of the Locust type of American satire, but a heartland type satire, but a weird heartland type satire sort of like if Garison Keilor were forcibly compacted into Woody Allen and then kicked off the fucking lake, but continued to live somewhere in those places planes fly over between the cities where celebrities do late night TV.
I like this guy's essays and that he was born in Brooklyn, but moved to St. Louis and died there. As for this book, it was okay. It's not something I would recommend to anyone not familiar with Stanley Elkin, as I think it's hard for most people to relate to the story: a city commissioner in his late 50s seemingly losing his sanity over the course of two days while trying to figure out exactly what happened to him (a scandal involving his son and his son's fiancee). It certainly had a strong voice to the characterization of the main guy, but I eventually found it sort of tiresome. I give it 3 stars because it referenced several times the St. Louis Blues' possible move to Saskatoon, Canada back in the early 80s. How often does a novel do that?
What do You think about The MacGuffin (1999)?
What a ride. I'd call this a madcap comedy. Definitely impressive, and not, I'd say, for someone not interested in meandering language and anecdotes. Feels a bit old-school Philip Roth at times, but is mostly classic Stanley Elkin. Better than Dick Gibson, I'd say. I'll have to read this one again, as it's the sort of book that would benefit, I think, from knowing what's going to happen as you're reading. Plus I felt a little rushed. The way it all comes together at the end, too. Pretty incredible. Not literally.
—Paul
