I am of two, very divided minds about this book. It is the story of Henry Powell who is blamed for a tragic family accident which occured when he was seven. He grows up to become a talented football player in his teens which earns him a scholarship to college. However, under pressure from his father, he abandons college to come home and care for his mother. He finds a temporary job in Baxter’s, a local landmark, a store founded in 1939 to provide men’s fine clothing, a store which tries to ‘remind this generation that sports coats are, in fact, leisure wear.’
The years pass, Henry doesn’t go back to college and the job in Baxter’s becomes more permanent. Henry continues to care for his parents and his life is punctuated by visits to the store by old school friends and team players who come to visit their families, get married, have children, divorce, lose their jobs and generally live their lives while Henry’s life is frozen in time.
Henry quickly uses up all the sympathy capital he has built up at the beginning of the book by not getting professional help for his mother who is obviously mentally ill, an alcoholic and a prescription drug abuser, by falling into obsessive love with a girl who works in the coffee-shop nearby and stalking her relentlessly when she breaks up with him and by being a pedantic stickler for detail.
‘In the storeroom he pulls a Tupperware container out of the minifridge. A strip of masking tape with H. Powell written in black capital letters is peeling off the top and Henry reminds himself that he must replace it… He finishes and puts the empty container on the top shelf of his locker, indicating it is to go home with him that day for cleaning. But then he remembers that he is going out after work and it would not do to bring a smelly, dirty plastic lunch container out on a date. Bottom of the locker. To be moved to the top shelf tomorrow.’
The book is about the tragedy of life unlived, a worthy theme but one that is difficult to write about without becoming as mundane and boring as the life being described. In many ways I felt that the author did a reasonably valiant job but didn’t quite manage to pull it off. The ‘devastating accident’ referred to in the blurb feels like a red herring, a marketing ploy to draw in readers who might not otherwise be interested. The tag line is ‘Can one terrible moment change your life forever?’ but in reality the characters reflect very little on the moment referred to (it’s fairly clear, by the way, what this is within the first few pages of the book although it’s only fully revealed about a quarter of the way in) and its influence on their lives is not always coherent. Paradoxically I felt the book might have been stronger if it had avoided this melodrama and focused on the poignancy of drifting through life without actually participating in it, something it does quite well in patches. I was reminded of The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields who manages to tread this delicate path much better but succeeds so well that it left me with an overwhelming sense of depression and futility at the end.
Elizabeth Flock writes well with an ability to describe detail with sharp and even humorous accuracy but sometimes, as if not entirely confident in her readers, she goes too far and underlines a detail that was already made clear.
The book ends on an optimistic note but an unrealistic one for me. It seemed that the solution to Henry’s immobility came too conveniently and this diminishes his situation somehow. His predicament was the result of a complex combination of circumstances and character so it seems a lot to ask of a reader to accept that all this can be overcome by a simple encounter.
So in conclusion, even though, for me, this book didn’t mesh as a whole, there were enough sparks of promise in it for me to be willing to try another book by the same author.
Mira Books (20 Jul 2007), 432 pages, ISBN-10: 0778301613
“The book is about the tragedy of life unlived, a worthy theme but one that is difficult to write about without becoming as mundane and boring as the life being described. ”
This is the thing, isn’t it? This sort of subject-matter is very much the stuff of novels being able to look at things in such detail and with access to people’s interior lives, but I must admit that I often avoid books of this theme for the reason you describe above. From your review, this does sound like an interesting book which you feel works well in part, though.
It’s unfortunate that the author didn’t remain true to her character at the end, I hate when that happens. Maybe she couldn’t think of another way to tie things up?
This sounds like an interesting book, but I’ll probably avoid it because my life is rather frozen and mundane and lately I’ve been thinking too much about that fact. Better for folks in a less gloomy frame of mind.
Sounds a bit of a frustrating read … full of potential but just missing as a whole and with a bit of dodgy psychology thrown in at the end.
Still, it sounds as if the author has potential … so it’s a case of ‘Watch this space’?
“his mother who is obviously mentally ill, an alcoholic and a prescription drug abuser, by falling into obsessive love with a girl who works in the coffee-shop nearby and stalking her relentlessly… ”
Mary, this sounds exactly like my sort of book. I could forgive the unevenness but unrealistically chipper endings are usually a problem for me. Intriguing review.
Lisa – I agree with you. This does sound like just the kind of book I’d like to read. I like writing which pays attention to the mundane and the ordinary – I think you can make most things interesting if you refract the narration through the eyes of an unusual and interesting character. However, the fact that is has an unrealistically ‘chipper’ ending does sound like the kind of thing that would put me off. I wonder if the author was under pressure from her editor or agent to write something with a feel-good factor.
And what did you think of the cover? Do you think it would attract the right kind of reader? I ask because looking at it, it doesn’t ’speak to me’ much – not the sort of book I’d usually pick up and have a browse at, at all.
Thanks for your comments, all. Maybe I didn’t explain the ending very well. I didn’t mean to say that it had a happy ending as such, just that it ended on an optimistic note which sort of appeared out of the blue without being having been built towards previously. (I’m tying myself up here trying to avoid too many spoilers.)
You might like it, Lisa. In fact if you want it I’ll send it to you, no problem.
And it was a bit disappointing, I kept thinking that it might just take off but it never did. I’d read another one though
I crossed with you, Jenn. I agree with you about the cover. I didn’t think it quite fit with the kind of book it was.
Oh, that would be marvellous
No rush mind you, as the tbr pile is still ten books high. I agree with Jenn about the mundane and the ordinary, those sorts of things seen through an unusual lens can make fascinating reading.
I find the cover a little bit spooky.