All Fall Down by James Leo Herlihy
"All Fall Down" by James Leo Herlihy is a coming-of-age novel that explores the complexities of family dynamics and personal identity through the eyes of a fourteen-year-old boy named Clinton Williams. Set in Cleveland, the story unfolds as Clinton grapples with the absence of his older brother, Berry-Berry, who is on a turbulent journey of his own, engaging in a lifestyle marked by recklessness and moral decay. During Berry-Berry's absence, Clinton skips school and focuses on observing and documenting the world around him, revealing his deep curiosity about life and relationships.
Clinton's relationship with his parents is fraught; his father, Ralph, struggles with his own discontent and alcoholism, while his mother, Annabel, is anxious and yearning for Berry-Berry's return. Through his writings, Clinton processes his feelings, revealing both naivety and wisdom as he navigates his tumultuous family life. The narrative highlights themes of abandonment, love, and the harsh realities of adulthood, culminating in a shocking tragedy that alters the course of Clinton's life. Ultimately, "All Fall Down" captures a poignant journey of growth, as Clinton confronts his brother's failings and begins to understand the complexities of human nature.
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All Fall Down by James Leo Herlihy
First published: 1960
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Bildungsroman
Time of plot: Late 1950’s
Locale: Cleveland, Ohio
Principal characters
Clinton Williams , a boyRalph Williams , his fatherAnnabel Williams , his motherBerry-Berry , his older brotherEcho O’Brien , a girl loved by Clinton and destroyed by Berry-BerryShirley , a young prostitute
The Story:
Clinton Williams is fourteen years old. His brother, Berry-Berry, is away “on his travels,” begun shortly after his twenty-first birthday. The Williams family recently moved into a house in a different section of Cleveland. Clinton is afraid that Berry-Berry will not be able to find the new house if he should return, and as a gesture of quiet protest he stays away from school for fifty-seven consecutive days. In the daytime, he loafs in the Aloha Sweet Shop, recording in his notebooks everything he sees or overhears. At home he eavesdrops on his parents’ conversations, which he records in his journals as well, along with copies of letters he opens on the sly. During the time he is skipping school, he fills twenty-five notebooks. His entries are naïve, funny, boring, and revealing. His romantic view of Berry-Berry is the first interest of Clinton’s life. The second is his tremendous curiosity about people and the nature of experience, explaining his effort to put down everything he knows and learns in order that he might solve some of life’s mysteries.
In many ways, Clinton is his father’s son. Ralph Williams was a politically active liberal before he was trapped by marriage and a family. Theoretically he is in business, but he spends most of his time in the cellar with a jigsaw puzzle in front of him and a bottle of bourbon within reach. He simplifies his life to two convictions: that Christ founded the Socialist Party and that Berry-Berry will turn out all right in the end. His wife, Annabel, is nervous, querulous, and tearful, constantly wishing for Berry-Berry’s return without ever realizing that he hates her.
The memory of the absent son is all that holds the strange family together. Ironically, Berry-Berry is unworthy of his family’s love and their hopes for his return. A bum, a pimp, and a sadist, he turns up first in one section of the country, then in another, in jail and out, either living off one of his women or else calling on his family for money to get him out of his latest escapade. Most of these facts are unknown to Clinton, however, during the time he is working in an all-night eating place and saving his money for the day when he might join his brother. The opportunity comes when Berry-Berry writes, asking his father for two hundred dollars to invest in a shrimping venture in Key Bonita, Florida. Ready to offer the money, Clinton takes a bus to Key Bonita, to find on his arrival that Berry-Berry already skipped town after mauling one of his lady loves. This knowledge comes to Clinton during the night he spends with a prostitute, and the realization of his brother’s true nature is almost more than he can bear. He returns home, falls ill, and even contemplates suicide. He is saved when he falls shyly in love with Echo O’Brien, older than he and the daughter of one of his mother’s friends, who comes to visit in Cleveland.
Berry-Berry returns and all is forgotten, or at least forgiven, and the Williamses are reunited by love. Berry-Berry makes a play for Echo. His parents hope that the affair will cause Berry-Berry to settle down at last. Clinton accepts the fact of Echo’s romance with his brother out of gratitude for the atmosphere of family happiness. Berry-Berry, however, cannot be reclaimed from the moral rot that infects him. Refusing to accept responsibility for Echo’s pregnancy, he callously discards her, and Echo commits suicide. Clinton at first intends to kill his brother, but in the end, he decides that Berry-Berry’s knowledge of his own corruption is punishment enough. Berry-Berry takes to the road again. Clinton begins writing in his notebooks once more, with the difference that, he believes, he has grown up.
Bibliography
Hicks, Granville. “Within the Shadow of Winesburg.” Saturday Review 43 (August 6, 1960): 14. Compares Herlihy to his “literary ancestor” Sherwood Anderson, who drew his material from grotesques and social misfits. Mentions other Anderson followers, such as John Steinbeck, William Saroyan, and Erskine Caldwell.
“James Leo Herlihy: Obituary.” The Times (London), November 20, 1993. Reviews Herlihy’s career, including the success of All Fall Down, and explains how his novels eventually were eclipsed by the successful film adaptation of Midnight Cowboy.
Levin, Martin. “Young Man on the Lam.” The New York Times Book Review, August 21, 1960. Complimentary and influential review of All Fall Down. Compares it to a Tennessee Williams play with its mixture of “incest, infantile regression, impotence, and sadism overlaid with quaintness.”
“Odd but Human.” Time, August 15, 1960, 76. Compares Clinton Williams to J. D. Salinger’s Holden Caulfield. Defines the theme of All Fall Down as the universal need for love. Asserts that the characters are odd, but important because of their kinship with humanity.
Pratley, Gerald. The Cinema of John Frankenheimer. New York: A. S. Barnes, 1969. Chapter 6 of this study of the filmmaker who directed the 1962 film adaptation of All Fall Down presents Frankenheimer’s interpretation of the story and his analysis of the characters’ motivations.
Quirk, Lawrence J. The Films of Warren Beatty. Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel Press, 1979. Contains an analysis of the 1962 screen adaptation of All Fall Down. The screenplay was written by William Inge, and the cast included Karl Malden, Eva Marie Saint, Brandon De Wilde, and Angela Lansbury. Includes illustrations.