By Love Possessed

BY LOVE POSSESSED

By James Gould Cozzens

 

Nomination: National Book Finalist 1958

 

Date Read: November 10, 2022

 

By Love Possessed is truly about love in every sense of the word. The love between husband and wife. The love between parents and children. The agape love between male and female friends, although not many female friendships were represented here. And, finally, the love between the devoted and their God. My previous foray with Cozzens wasn’t as successful as this. Perhaps it’s because I respond better to the subject of love than war. Love is, after all, the entire reason for our being (IMHO).

 

The protagonist of this novel is Arthur Winner, with a name that evokes his character. Arthur is a good man, good husband, good father and even better attorney. He is generous with his time and his opinions and always tries to live a noble life, much in his father’s image. Yet even the venerable Arthur is prone to fallacy, as all humans are.

 

Arthur and his law firm have taken under their wings Helen Detweiler who was orphaned, along with her brother Ralph, when she was just 16. Helen assumed the role of mother to her brother and Arthur and his colleagues trained Helen as a secretary so that she might have a steady income as she finishes raising Ralph. Ralph, however, is a ne’er-do-well who seems hell-bent on screwing up his life and Helen’s in the process.

 

Ralph is accused of raping a local strumpet known by the whole town to be a “slut.” Alas, I loathe that word but Cozzens allows his characters to throw it about as wantonly as this woman’s reputation. Although Ralph nominally didn’t do it (who would believe a local harlot, anyway?), he is up turd creek because he has a fiancé that he’s gotten into trouble. So not only has he knocked up his girlfriend, but he cheated on her when she stopped putting out. Charming. Regardless, Arthur commits to defending him although the charges are later dropped. Helen, unknowingly, cannot handle the shame her brother has brought. I’ll just leave that there.

 

Arthur’s days seem cut out of a nightmare. He has meetings and family obligations and church obligations and people coming out of the woodwork, all claiming a piece of his time. Even a backyard snake begs to be dealt with. Arthur handles all of this with grace and patience, which is why everyone turns to him with their problems. And as honest a life as Arthur desires to live, when he finds out one of the original partners in his law firm has embezzled a staggering amount of money, he has a gut-check of his principals and realizes there are shades of grey.

 

Cozzens has painted a beautiful snapshot of a 1950s small town where the characters introduced seem like people you would know. Sometimes dense and with some quirky tangents, By Love Possessed is a beautiful piece of work. And, whether hated or revered, all humans share many fundamental truths. We are all prone to mistakes and imperfection. We are all so much more than the worst thing we’ve ever done. And we are all worthy of love.