CEREMONY IN LONE TREE

by Wright Morris ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

Wright Morris' new novel is one of his best. It is a distinguished work that will probably sell on a level with his successful earlier books. Morris is back in the part of the world he has made his own, the Nebraska of the flat, dry plains and the enormous sky. The family of Tom Scanlon (they appeared in the National Book Award winner- The Field of Vision) gather in Lone Tree for his 90th birthday, as do his son-in-law's friend, a self-unmade man, and a girl he has picked up en route, and a part-time newspaperman who happens to be the son of the man who thought he was Santa Claus in The Works of Love. The ceremony is a meeting of displaced persons, displaced within themselves as well as in relation to the outside world. The varieties of alienation are beautifully explored in moving, humorous, pathetic vignettes of each of the characters and the climax of the book comes in a revelation, full of despair, that each would choose death, either literal or figurative, rather than accept an easy solution of his dislocation. Morris has written a rich and wonderful book, which stands handsomely by itself, but which gains something in depth from its echoes of earlier novels.

Pub Date: July 11, 1960

ISBN: 0803282761

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960

Categories: FICTION