Review: Looking for Tennessee Williams by George Sanchez

Author George Sanchez crafts an epic tale of romance, history, and New Orleans in Looking for Tennessee Williams. In this richly envisioned and expansive novel, a cast of collegiate actors make their way to the Big Easy for a theatre festival in the early 1960s, navigating the politically charged landscape of the South, as well as their own internal dramas, betrayals, and desires.

Told in exceptional detail, this novel roughly spans a month in the autumn of 1963, though the majority takes place over only a week – the same infamous week when an assassin in Dallas changed the course of American history forever. The collision of microcosmic drama with macrocosmic crises makes this novel a powerful read, transporting readers to a historical crucible of morality that feels unexpectedly relevant today. Explorations of power dynamics, gender roles, subversive behavior, sexual liberation, substance abuse, and being true to one’s identity seem to swirl and run together, and the author has orchestrated this multilayered story to perfection.

The characters in this sprawling story are brilliantly maneuvered and manipulated, colliding with one another and the dynamic framework of history. Multiple subplots center on Jill, the troubled leading lady, both in the limelight and in the shadows, and she becomes the subject of fascination and dangerous fantasy for multiple characters. Well-crafted figures like Clyde, Janelle, Bernie, and Bruce add complexity and carnality to an already tangled tale.

Bedecked in emotional language and lavish descriptions, this author is no stranger to painting a gorgeous scene, particularly about New Orleans. From the very start of this novel, it is clear that language will take center stage: “But his peccadilloes were many, the world unforgiving, and here he had come to rest, though the wider artistic ocean still sang its siren song in his mottled ears.” While this level of circuitous and lyrical prose isn’t constant in the writing, it is quite frequent, making this a deeply captivating read for logophiles and linguists alike.

On the other hand, that same meticulous approach to narration at times carries over to dialogue, which can make the character’s interactions feel scripted, rather than organic. The theatrical nature of these characters is part of the story, but the dialogue is not often woven into the overall narrative arc; the emotional weight of the story is based on what readers are told or already understand, but less often on characters interactions and their shifting relationships. There is also some redundancy in the storytelling, with characters musing over the same issues in different contexts, or the narration dancing around the same conclusions, saying similar things in slightly shifted ways.

All told, however, this beautiful bit of bayou drama is dripping with sultry swagger. You can practically taste the swelter of New Orleans in these scenes, and this week-long plotline is a profound pressure cooker for both the colorful cast and in the context of America’s larger destiny. Despite occasional passages that could be pruned and polished, this novel is a wildly ambitious and undeniably unique achievement.