Lark & Termite

by Jayne Anne Phillips

Two time periods, four points of view, and one attractive cover, but I just don't know what to say. This novel got great reviews (even in EW), but I am totally unimpressed.

Lark and Termite are sister and brother. Lark is seventeen and a secretarial student in West Virginia. Termite is her younger and mentally disabled brother. They live with their aunt, Noreen (Nonnie), and they know little about their actual parents.

Well, we learn about Termite's father, Robert, and how he died in the Korean War. We also learn about Lark and Termite's mother, Lola, and how Nonnie came to be their caretaker.

But we don't get to the meaty part of this novel until the last fifty pages or so. And then we learn about the complex relationships between all of these folks.

I've read several reviews that reference The Sound and the Fury, which is the Faulkner novel that I just can't seem to read (twice failed). Perhaps this is the novel's main flaw? I mean, really, who wants to read a poor man's Faulkner? And who wants to read Faulkner at all?

7/12/09