‘Caste’ instant classic about America’s abiding sin
A critic shouldn’t often deal in superlatives. He or she is here to explicate, to expand context and to make fine distinctions.
But sometimes a reviewer will shout as if into a mountaintop megaphone. I recently came upon William Kennedy’s review of ‘‘One Hundred Years of Solitude,’’ which he called ‘‘the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race.’’ Kennedy wasn’t far off.
I had these thoughts while reading Isabel Wilkerson’s new book, ‘‘Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.’’ It’s an extraordinary document, one that strikes me as an instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far. It made the back of my neck prickle from its first pages, and that feeling never went away.
I told more than one person, as I moved through my days this past week, that I was reading one of the most powerful nonfiction books I’d ever encountered.
Wilkerson’s book is about how brutal misperceptions about race have disfigured the American experiment. This is a topic that major historians and novelists have examined from many angles, with care, anger, deep feeling and sometimes simmering wit.
Wilkerson’s book is a work of synthesis. She borrows from all that has come before, and her book stands on many shoulders. ‘‘Caste’’ lands so firmly because the historian, the sociologist and the reporter are not at war with the essayist and the critic inside her. This book has the reverberating and patriotic slap of the best American prose writing.
This is a complicated book that does a simple thing. Wilkerson, who won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting while at The New York Times and whose previous book, ‘‘The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration,’’ won the National Book Critics Circle Award, avoids words like ‘‘white’’ and ‘‘race’’ and ‘‘racism’’ in favor of terms like ‘‘dominant caste,’’ ‘‘favored caste,’’ ‘‘upper caste’’ and ‘‘lower caste.’’
(currently streaming), is a revenge tale set in West Virginia. Directed by former Upper Arlington resident Scott Wiper, the movie stars Malcolm Mcdowell as Harris, a British crime boss, and Vinnie Jones as Neelyn, his loyal enforcer. Perlman plays Preston, an American oil baron and Harris’ partner in a moneylaundering scheme.
Question: How are you coping with the pandemic?
Ron Perlman: You have your good days and not-so-good days. On balance it’s kind of natural. Social distancing is something I’ve been working on for decades and decades. Doing absolutely nothing in the course of a 24-hour period is one of my strong suits.
Q: Let’s talk movies. What can you tell us about your new film, ‘‘The Big Ugly?’’
Perlman: My first indie film was called ‘‘Cronos,’’ back in 1993, with a very young filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. That experience, which was wonderful, set me on a course of constantly looking for these scripts done out of the mainstream as labors of love. These kinds of films have all the elements you want as an actor. You’re proud of these indies because they turn out to be exactly what you want. With ‘‘The Big Ugly,’’ I knew from the start that this was a fantastic cast including Vinnie Jones and Malcolm Mcdowell. The whole ensemble was really exciting and didn’t disappoint.
Q: Is it still exciting for you to dive into a new script?
Perlman: The most exciting moment is when you identify with what you’ve been sent to read. If it’s original, it’s even better. I’m always looking for what has been unexplored, at least to my own knowledge, because it gives me an opportunity to flex some muscles I’ve never flexed before. Once those boxes get checked in the originality and never-done-it-before categories, I’m on my way to a really cool, little adventure.
Q: Due to the pandemic, production was temporarily shut down on del Toro’s remake of ‘‘Nightmare Alley,’’ in which you star alongside Willem Dafoe, Cate Blanchett and Bradley Cooper. What has it been like to team up once again with del Toro, who had previously cast you in ‘‘Hellboy’’ (2004) and ‘‘Cronos?’’
Perlman: First of all, the film is amazing. It’s based on my No. 1 noir film, made in 1947, starring Tyrone Power. As for Guillermo, he’s definitely one of the greats. I received a letter from him asking me to do this part, and I was so thrilled. Everything about him is unique and unlike anything else I’ve ever experienced. He fills this space he created with new adventures. He blazes a trail that’s never been walked. To be part of his inner circle, someone he calls upon occasionally to be a witness to this new thing he’s cooking up, is something I don’t take for granted. It’s phenomenal.
Q: Looking back, how does this kid with self-image issues even begin to think about a career in acting?
Perlman: I just accidentally backed into a high-school play. I wasn’t intending to audition. I was forced to by friends, and I got the role. Meanwhile everyone in my family had a means of expression through music, but I knew early on that music was never going to be my road. That required such discipline and devotion. I didn’t have any of those things, so I became an actor. I discovered you didn’t need anything. You could (expletive) your way through.
Q: Or fall in love with your craft. Perlman: That, too. It was just one of those things. Very rarely in a person’s formative years does someone stumble upon something that fits like a custommade suit. That first experience of being on stage and solving all the problems one has to solve before getting in front of the audience — plus that mystical communication that happens between you and the people — is a really seductive, aphrodisiacal experience. I began to crave it and wanted more of it.
Q: What do you say now to younger fans who might be facing their own self-esteem issues?
Perlman: Look for where you can be most at peace. And please give yourself a break. What you think of yourself is probably untrue. It’s probably a distortion. You’re one of a gazillion people who are just trying to get through the day, which means you are never alone.