“So Long, See You Tomorrow” by William Maxwell: Nameless narrator experiences himself as “two boys” with memory gap for fantasy

“In the insufficiently heated bedroom on the northwest corner of the house in Park Place I was taken by surprise by the first intimations of a pleasure that I did not at first know how to elicit from or return to the body that gave rise to it, which was my own. It had no images connected with it, and no object but pure physical sensation. It was as if I had found a way of singing that did not come from the throat. I stumbled upon it by accident and it did not cross my mind that anybody might ever have had this experience except me. Therefore I did not connect these piercing exquisite sensations with the act of murder that removed Cletus Smith from Lincoln, or with what other men and women did that was all right for them to do provided they were married. Or even with what older boys talked about in the locker room at school. It was an all but passive, wholly private passion that turned me into two boys, one of whom went to high school and was conscientious about handing in his homework and tried out for the glee club and the debating society and lingered after school talking to his algebra teacher. The other boy was moody and guilt-ridden and desired nothing from other people but their absence” (1, pp. 47-48).

Comment

The above suggests to me that William Keepers Maxwell Jr. had multiple personality trait since childhood. If you would argue that what he describes is entirely routine and merely cultural for high school boys from his background, please submit your comment.

1. William Maxwell. So Long, See You Tomorrow [1980]. New York, Vintage International, 1996.

I have finished this short novel and found nothing further of interest here.