The PastePot Man Author:Edwin Lanham Texans in Paris in the 1920's. While this six-word description of Edwin Lanham's new novel is accurate, it doesn't fully convey the special quality and fascination of the Paste-Pot Man. For one thing the protagonist, Alan Shell, is anything but a typical Texan and for another, his story would be unusual in any setting. The Paste-Pot Man is a ser... more »ious and brilliant portrayal of and probing into the themes of identity and personality. (book jacket)
Excerpt from newspaper book review The Fresno Bee The Republican 4/23/67: "We had been born in a place of virile men and rigid attitudes, Alan and I, at a time when there was little compassion for the runts of the litter." This reflection comes from narrator Frank Neal who, while a young man in Paris in the 20's once again became unwillingly involved (as he had so often as a hoy College football hero in Texas) with Alan Shell. The novel, a complex, Freudian study of Alan's search for his lost personality, is developed from two viewpoints. Many scenes are shown first as described by Alan in the Paris journal he keeps while undergoing hypo-analysis, then as seen in flashback by Frank as he reacts to his own reading of the journal. The story opens with Frank living on the Left Bank for the typical reasons of his day -- to write a book, to enjoy the drinking, the women, the Bohemian existence. Frank, rugged and popular, has never yet really accepted responsibility for any relationship. When Alan appears, having come to Paris to paint and to escape the smothering influence of Sisterbird, the aunt who reared him, Frank still sees him as the hero-worshiping misfit who once lived next door -- the timid, lonely child who served the local gang as a nuisance, a tease, a convenience. But psychiatrist Otto Wolfe, leading Alan back through blocked out memories, uncovers other personalities and what may have been a terror-ridden childhood of incest and murder. The story lags at times during Alan's couch fantasies, but we are drawn along by our sympathy for him, and by our need to know if he is growing closer to, or farther from, the truth of his own identity.« less