[I trust the Times will not object to my reproducing this short review by Anne Whitehouse (New York Times, 24 November 1991) of Tito Perdue’s Lee for the benefit of fellow enthusiasts. Bibliography of works of and on Tito Perdue here.]
Lee, the protagonist of this first novel by Tito Perdue, is a fiercely misanthropic septuagenarian whose main characteristics are his love of Greek literature and his utter revulsion at other human beings. He despises every manifestation of the modern world that has reached him in rural Alabama. Although he keeps an apartment in a small town, the old man becomes a vagabond, wandering through the countryside and eventually taking up residence in a fleabag hotel. Not only does he neglect his many ailments, he also mutilates himself, holding lighted matches to his body in order to summon images of his dead wife, Judy. These fantasies are his only companions; every living person is his enemy. Lee describes acts of murder and arson, but because there are no repercussions the reader gradually comes to realize that these acts are figments of the main character’s profoundly disturbed psyche. This is not a narrative that reveals how Lee became what he is; instead, it is a series of disjointed episodes filtered through the mind of a madman. Its language is vitriolic and hallucinatory, yet surprisingly lucid, producing a portrait both exceedingly strange and troubling.
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