My Lobotomy

As far as I know, we have two books at the bookshop about lobotomies. One is called My Lobotomy, and is written by Howard Dully, an actual lobotomized man, about his lobotomy, lobotomy. His frontal lobe was removed at his stepmother's behest and to his surprise. He was a bad kid with deplorable table manners, so a doctor who drove a car called "The Lobotomobile" scrambled up Howard's lobe at age twelve (sorry if this is disgusting) to make him better (for just $200). I didn't read far enough to find out how he turned out, but it seems that he still has a lot of anger, and chapter 12 is entitled "Homeless," which doesn't bode well. 

Our second lobotomy book is called The Ice Pick Technique and was written by someone named Anna Mavrikis, who does not admit to having a lobotomy. It is a tale of greed, egomania, and lobotomies. The two practitioners end up accidentally murdering people with their ice pick. Go figure. 

Charles Chesnutt

The Wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the Color-Line, published in 1899 by Charles Chesnutt, all concern the reappearance of a racially significant relative into the protagonist's life. These protagonists are on "the color-line:" many of them are of mixed race and, if they're not capable of passing as white, they at least hold some valuable distance from the stereotypes of black slaves working on a plantation. Their status is threatened when they are associated with a blacker relative or friend. The uncontrollable visitations cause a lot of worry to the protagonists, who rarely explicitly admit that their discomfort has to do with race. 

Chesnutt's stories were intended for a white audience. He writes elsewhere that his literary goal was to outline and detail his points undetected. The narrator's voice is strangely uninflected, and makes no argument: William Dean Howells, in his review of "The Wife of his Youth," writes that "the story was notable for the passionless handling of a phase of our common life which is tense with potential tragedy; for the attitude, almost ironical, in which the artist observes the play of contesting emotions in the drama under his eyes..." A prejudiced reader would immediately shut down any outright argument in favor of blacks. Race is not a vocalized issue in the stories, but sneaks in to change the established emotions and alliances of what began as a simple, naturalist narrative. Likewise, the feelings of panic that the characters experience is only gradually revealed to be related to race. Even after this addition, the stories never lose their traditional narrative tension, and that's what makes them so enjoyable to read.

Look for Chesnutt's stories at our new bookshop.