For Whom are You Writing?

Tom Kromer’s Waiting for Nothing is by far my favorite book that we have read in this class. His literary style and language really makes the book come alive off of the page and become a whole world unto itself. The book’s afterword entitled In Search of Tom Kromer says “most of Waiting for Nothing was written during his [Kromer’s] stay at Camp Murphys” (267). Camp Murphys, we are told, we part of “the California branch of Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps” (267). After its completion the author immediately sought out a publisher for his piece. My one question, then, has to be, for whom did Kromer think he was writing this book? Who is the intended audience?

If we take In Search of Tom Kromer at its word, then clearly Kromer did not intend to write this book merely for the sake of writing. It was neither an effort to preserve his memories nor a way to cope with his situation on the bum. He wanted to people to read this book. However, “reviews were attentive and serious though no wholly favorable…Waiting for Nothing was a commercial failure and did not even sell out its first printing” (269-70). If the larger American, and presumably middle-class, public was Kromer’s target audience, he failed to achieve his goal. Critics may have enjoyed it, but the work did not even come close to achieving commercial success.

So I ask again: whom did Kromer think would read this book? It is dirty, graphic, and difficult to swallow in some parts, although taken as a whole I find it brilliant. In a time period where many people who were not being directly affected by the Depression were also able to ignore it, I find it not at all surprising that most of America would ignore this book. It is almost too real. How could a person be exposed to such horrors and still maintain a peaceful, happy, prosperous lifestyle? How could someone read this and not feel guilty about their better situation in life? Almost seventy years after the fact, I felt guilty reading this book from the comfort of my good university education.