The Sunlight Dialogues: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|1972 novel by John Gardner}}

{{infobox Book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->

{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}}

| name = The Sunlight Dialogues

{{infobox Book book| <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->

| image = [[Image:Thesunlightdialogues.png|200px|''The Sunlight Dialogues'']]

| authorname = [[JohnThe Sunlight Gardner]]Dialogues

| image = Sunlight-Dialogues-John-Gardner.jpg

| cover_artist = John Napper

| countrycaption = [[USA]]First edition cover

| languageauthor = [[EnglishJohn languageGardner (novelist)|EnglishJohn Gardner]]

| genre cover_artist = [[HistoricalJohn Fiction]]Napper

| country = United States

| publisher = [[Alfred A. Knopf]]

| language = English

| release_date = 1972

| genre = [[Philosophical fiction]]

| media_type = Print

| pagespublisher = 712[[Alfred A. Knopf]]

| isbn release_date = ISBN 0-684-83339-51972

| media_type = Print (hardback and paperback)

| pages = 712 pp

| isbn = 0-394-47144-X

| dewey = 813/.5/4

| congress = PZ4.G23117 Su PS3557.A712

| oclc = 333602

}}

'''''The Sunlight Dialogues''''' is a [[1972]] [[novel]] by the American author [[John Gardner]]. It is set in the 1960s in [[Batavia (citynovelist), New York|Batavia, New York]].

John Gardner]].

==Plot summary==

The novel is set in the 1960s in [[Batavia (city), New York|Batavia, New York]]. It follows Batavia police chief [[Fred Clumly]] in his strange pursuit of a magician known as [[The Sunlight Man|the Sunlight Man]], a champion of existential freedom and pre-biblical Babylonian philosophy. As Fred Clumly believes in absolute law, order, justice and justicea Judeo-Christian world view, the two butt their ideological heads in a number of dialogues, all recorded on audiocassette by Clumly. Each of these two characters attempts to exert power over the other -- Clumlyother—Clumly with the law behind him and the Sunlight Man with his magic and violence -- untilviolence—until they wear down not only each other, but many of the other characters with whom they come into contact. A myriad of side-stories provide colorfulprovides background for the plot, including those of the Hodge family, the outlaw Nick Slater, and the heroic Millie.

==Characters in the"The bookSunlight Dialogues"==

*[[Fred Clumly]]

{{col-begin}}

*[[Esther Clumly]]

{{col-2}}

*[[The Sunlight Man]]

*[[Fred Clumly]]

*[[Domenic ("Miller") Sangirgonio]]

*[[Esther Clumly]]

*[[Stan Kozlowski]]

*[[The Sunlight Man]]

*[[BenWill Hodge]], Sr.

*[[Domenic ("Miller") Sangirgonio]]

*[[Mildred Jewel]]

*[[Stan Kozlowski]]

*[[Will Hodge, (SrJr.)]]

*[[Luke Hodge]]

*[[Mildred Jewel]]

*[[WillBen Hodge (Jr.)]]

*[[Vanessa Woodchurch]]

*[[Luke Hodge]]

*[[Kathleen Paxton]]

*[[Ben Hodge]]

*[[Clive Paxton]]

*[[Vanessa Woodchurch]]

*[[Nick Slater]]

{{col-2}}

*[[Vernon Slater]]

*[[Kathleen Paxton]]

*[[Mickey Salvador]]

*[[Clive Paxton]]

*[[John Figlow]]

*[[Nick Slater]]

*[[R.V. Kleppmann]]

*[[Vernon Slater]]

*[[Mrs. Kleppmann]]

*[[Mickey Salvador]]

*[[Walter Benson/Boyle]]

*[[John Figlow]]

*[[Marguerite Benson]]

*[[R.V. Kleppmann]]

*[[Oliver Nuper]]

*[[Mrs. Kleppmann]]

*[[Walter Benson/Boyle]]

==Critical response==

*[[Marguerite Benson]]

In the Kirkus Reviews, the novel is summated as "A complex and difficult fable of curiously American relevance; a book of bleak humors and raw surprises which mine — and sometimes undermine — the fictional ground with speculative brilliance."<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/john-gardner/the-sunlight-dialogues/ |title=THE SUNLIGHT DIALOGUES {{!}} Kirkus Reviews |language=en}}</ref>

*[[Oliver Nuper]]

{{col-end}}

==References==

{{reflist}}

==External links==

*[http://www.librarything.com/work/130766 {{LibraryThing Info and Reviews]work|130766}}

*[http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/039447144X?v=glance Amazon Reviews]

{{gardner}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sunlight Dialogues, The}}

[[Category:Novels by John Gardner (American writer)]]

[[Category:1972 American novels]]

[[Category:American philosophical novels]]

[[Category:Alfred A. Knopf books]]

[[Category:Novels set in New York (state)]]

[[Category:Batavia, New York]]

[[Category:Fiction set in the 1960s]]

{{1970s-philos-novel-stub}}