The Question is not, he said, were you loved. Or did you love. Or did you love yourself. Or did you allow love to move you, though that’s a big one. Move you. The question, Rockwell, is did you get to be who you are. And if not, then why. What, my friend, is the big why. (p. 372)
The Big Why is a novel by Michael Winter about Rockwell Kent’s stay in Newfoundland during the war. It is well written, though I don’t understand why Winter doesn’t like certain types of punctuation. There is a thread about Newfoundland and the brutal marine life that is terrific (or terrifying) and a thread about Rockwell Kent (no relation) and his relationships with women. From the sounds of it, Rockwell Kent was a prick when it came to women (and one suspects that’s what Winter likes about him), but the narration by Kent doesn’t quite match the character described as if Winter were trying to soften Kent by letting a more senstive 1990s Kent narrate a 1940s arrogant artist.
The philosophical reflections, however, make this discrepancy worth it … are we who we are?
For more on Kent, see the Rockwell Kent Gallery and Collection, Plattsburgh.