Word: fisted
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Glorious Wickedness. There is also a faint whiff of post-adolescent Holden Caulfield about John Fist in this ambitious and often amusing novel. Old Pro John Hersey has a deeper purpose than picturing the humiliation of being young, however. Combining the sound reporting skill he employed in A Bell for Adano, and The Wall with the wild imagination he showed in The Marmot Drive and White Lotus, he has tried to explore the collegiate mind, to understand why today's undergraduates are so hard to communicate with, so susceptible to aimlessness, boredom and rebellion...
...exploration vehicle is the Faust theme, which is a pretty striking and typically offbeat Mersey gimmick. Fist (Faust) makes a deal with Chum (Me-phisto), who offers Fist the chance to experience "breakthroughs." All he wants in return is a 26-week option, subject to renewal, on Fist's inmost primeval soul. Oddly enough, when he first steps into the world as the Devil's man, Fist doesn't change much. He starts cutting classes carefreely, naturally. But it is some time before he even gets around to going to a motel with a pretty young high...
...Fist makes out much better with Mona, a townie whore with a heart of platinum, and an impressive smattering of all the scholastic disciplines gleaned from faculty clientele. In fact, he likes Mona so much that in one of the most sadly comic episodes in the book, he takes her home and introduces her to his parents. Mom is horrified; Dad is too, but-wow, that sweater...
Nettling Truth. Eventually it begins to dawn on young Fist that, despite his unholy deal, he is as dissatisfied and disorganized as ever. Chum Breed tries to remedy that by feeding him a capsule of LSD. Fist kicks his inhibitions to tatters and even makes a nightmarish descent into Hell. That does it. When he recovers, Fist breaks his contract with the Devil and gladly opts for "the real world, crummy...
...shallow to take seriously. It is Mersey's deft portrayal of the collegiate scene that makes Too Far worth walking for. Parents who have survived the ordeal of pushing a son or two through college will certainly learn a thing or two. Especially if, like Sophomore Fist's father, they have ever had that choked-up feeling in communicating, and have ended up saying hopelessly: "Why don't you get your hair...