Magic Realism in Prose

There is among us a new realism in the art of the novel—so intimate of detail and so pathetic of impact that the critic feels like a trespasser saying anything at all. Once the unflinching novelist has intruded upon a tenement quarrel, an act of sodomy, or an abortion, and has reproduced these troubles photographically, sparing us nothing, the critic can report that these things have been done with such and such a technical perfection, laying bare once more the human heart; and his work is done. Or would be, except that he is still talking about illusion, about art, about words. A novel is a moral view of life; its angle of inspection is exclusive and obvious, and the story is a parable like any other. This point needs to be made so that we can appreciate the clarity, the high finish, and jolting fidelity to nature of Mr. Baldwin’s and Mr. Roth’s new novels, and of the novelist’s notebook of Mr. Gold, which might easily belong to either Baldwin or Roth. I propose that we borrow a name from art criticism and call their work Magic Realism.

Another Country, by James Baldwin. Dial, $5.95

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About the Author

Guy Davenport

There is among us a new realism in the art of the novel—so intimate of detail and so pathetic of impact that the critic feels like a trespasser saying anything at all. Once the unflinching novelist has intruded upon a tenement quarrel, an act of sodomy, or an abortion, and has reproduced these troubles photographically, sparing us nothing, the critic can report that these things have been done with such and such a technical perfection, laying bare once more the human heart; and his work is done. Or would be, except that he is still talking about illusion, about art, about words. A novel is a moral view of life; its angle of inspection is exclusive and obvious, and the story is a parable like any other. This point needs to be made so that we can appreciate the clarity, the high finish, and jolting fidelity to nature of Mr. Baldwin’s and Mr. Roth’s new novels, and of the novelist’s notebook of Mr. Gold, which might easily belong to either Baldwin or Roth. I propose that we borrow a name from art criticism and call their work Magic Realism.

Another Country, by James Baldwin. Dial, $5.95