The Scholar of Moab is rich, nuanced, and complicated. I'm not sure that Peck comes down decisively on either side of the issue. But it's also possible to read it as magical realism. One of the most interesting things about The Scholar of Moab is that it's possible to read it as realistic fiction where an astounding number of coincidences come together to create delightfully weird and tragic situation. Sandra and her ward members are both ignorant and tender, and my reaction to Hyrum vacillated from hate to love and back again several times over the course of the narrative. On the back jacket, Scott Abbott says, "It’s satire of the best sort: biting what it loves, snuggling up to what it hates," and that's an assessment that I heartily agree with. The Scholar of Moab is also a book that manages to walk the fine line between satirizing the people of Moab and embracing them. I had so much fun reading all of these different voices, and Peck's ability to write from the perspective of so many different characters was really impressive. Readers not only get Hyrum's private journal, misspellings and malapropisms and all, but they also hear poems from his wife, Sandra, poems and letters from his gal-on-the-side, Dora, letters from one half of the conjoined twins who worked as cowboys in the LaSal mountains outside of Moab during Hyrum's stint blowing stuff up for the government, notes from the unnamed redactor, and likely letters, transcripts or other written work from other voices. I think part of the reason is because the book, which centers on the story of Hyrum Thayne, the high school dropout turned "scholar," encompasses so many different voices. Even though its length, at just about 300 pages, isn't epic, it feels epic in scope. But mostly, I'm impressed with the ambition of the book. Don't misunderstand me, I'm not trying to look for a nice way to say that I didn't like this book, because I really did like it.
I've been sitting here at the computer for a long time, wondering what to say about this book. Referral: I read a review on By Common Consent
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