Thomas Berger, The Feud

Martin Kich (Wright State University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1983

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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This novel is set in several adjacent small towns in the American Midwest in the 1930s. The location and the time period both suggest that Berger is on some level— perhaps many levels —extending the treatments of middle-American life that defined the work of Sherwood Anderson and Sinclair Lewis.

The title refers to a conflict that develops between two families, the Beelers and the Bullards. Like most feuds of legend, this one begins over a relatively minor personal slight and quickly escalates. In fact, the consequences of the original incident very quickly seem ridiculously disproportionate to the significance of that incident. One Saturday morning, a mill foreman named Dolf Beeler goes to Bud Bullard’s hardware store to buy paint remover and steel wool. Beeler has an unlit cigar

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524 words

Citation: Kich, Martin. "The Feud". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 August 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16351, accessed 10 May 2024.]

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