Lonesome Time by Weldon Payne - Book Review

The theme of Weldon Payne's book Lonesome Time seems to be a theme as indirect, yet powerful as the book itself. Payne expresses a theme about how life is full of imperfections and sadness, but it is also full of beauty; so don't let the former outweigh the latter. This theme is apparent through Payne's detail to all the setting. All the details seem unnecessary at first, but one may soon realize that these details are what makes all the great memories that are grandparents might have growing up. Sadness and heartache does come, but it also goes. The parts of life that sticks with a person in the end are the beautiful things that makes memories. The ferry would be a good example of this. Although Hal did seem to loose everybody, he still remembered the ferryboat. The theme is also strongly express through the passage of time. The linearity of the book is unique and mixed, but in a way that it carries the message. Time is always constant and it cannot be stopped, and there will be plenty of heartache over the passage of time.

The whole book has a very foreboding tone. This is set up by the fact that one of the first sections tells of the main character's death. Payne gives the reader bits and pieces of the sad end of the main characters throughout the book. This literary device causes the reader to constantly look forward to the sad result. The setting contributes to this tone by giving the reader small detail. The color of a Harry's hair would not normally be significant, but showing the hair later with gray in it allows the reader to reflect on his physical change alongside of his life change. The characters live in an isolated farm town with little mention of machinery at first. It is easy to note the progression of technology in the town alongside of the progression of the characters life. there is plenty mention of the church with the graveyard as well. After reading about Mary Louis' Grave in the first line of the book, the graveyard has a foreboding atmosphere about it.

The progression of a person, from the fetus into a man, shows the relentlessness of time. Even as the fetus is being formed, it is surrounded by death. This shows that there is no escaping death. The cliché a person is dyeing as soon as that person is born becomes apparent in Payne's book. The human becomes a metaphor for time itself. The progression of the fetus throughout the book at the beginning of each chapter reiterates the point about time being relentless. There is no stopping the progression of live once the fetus begins to grow. The life of Hal growing up and experiencing almost the same heartache as his mother shows that there is nothing new to life. Each person has his or her trials, but like Mary Louis, Hal also had those great memories to fall back on.

Payne employees a unique method of telling this story. The changing points of view allowed Payne to show the similarities in two generations at the same time. This stressed the idea of time never letting up, and doing the same thing to everybody. The switch between past, present, and future shows the results of time in a manner that allows the reader to reflect on future events, while reading the past events. This adds to several elements within the story; including the foreboding tone mentioned earlier. It also aids the theme of the progression of time. Although he is showing different times, there is nothing that can be done about the outcome. There is already an outcome, and Payne is showing his audience the story line that led up to that outcome.

Lonesome Time employees plenty of imagery that embosses the theme and characters of the story. One apparent element in the story is the ever present train in the background. The train moving in the background shows the ever present theme of time moving along. No matter the state of things going on, the train keeps moving. The lives of the characters are like this as well. None can stop, accelerate, or move back time. Progress cannot be stopped either. As time progress, so does life, but time is always constant. The train moved along when Hal was a baby, and the train moved along throughout his life. Time is constant, and each one of them has to cope with it. The train also aid the forebodingness of the story as well. Mary hearing the train whistling in the distance on page 36 seems to be an oman. She is getting sick as she hear the train. The reader later finds out that she is sick with pregnancy. This progresses the idea that the train is a metaphor for the progression of time and life that cannot be stopped.

Payne's book was quite interesting as both a story, and in methodology. Payne used many different styles in one short book that seemed to medley many of the different American literary styles. The book is a great insight on experience and life. His repetition of certain themes and ideas was even poetic at times. Reading Lonesome Time as a class allows the class to see many of the great American styles compiled into one book. It is a great culmination of several stylistic ideas up to this point in American history.