Soooo…. I like books. I am somewhat passionate and obnoxious and pretentious about how much I like books. I really don't even like to talk about books with people who don't really like books. I will not say “literature” since I believe some of you might have heard or read of the unkind soul who said my shelves look like the “Remainder” section at the Barnes & Noble store. Very unkind. Anyway, a friend of my son, whose parents are also friends was kind enough to give me a book for Christmas. I don't like receiving books. I like to pick out my own books but this young man writes and teaches English and maybe literature and he dates a lovely woman who is editor of a top notch little literary Journal called “Boulevard”. You should check it out and subscribe (I have),
Anyway, he gave me a book and I was reading another book and as my sad regular readers know...it takes me a month to finish a book now whether due to my need for more sleep or my drinking problem or the deteriorating plasticity of my brain. It just takes a while but out of respect I wanted to read this book because a thoughtful person who reads gave it to me. It was a finalist for The National Book Award and since my friend Rick Dooling did that (I think) with his great book “White Man’s Grave” I tend to pay attention to that award.
This was a short book (210 pages or so) which I like and I like the writers style. His name Chris Bachelder (I don't how you pronounce it) and he writes with a nice sparse style. I don't want to say a Hemingway like style but he uses words with economy to describe things in great detail. The book's premise is this… a bunch (21 or 22) guys gather at a nameless one star hotel somewhere in a nondescript part of the country to reenact “The Play”. Now many different people have many things they describe as “The Play” in several different sports. If you Google it you get a plethora of hits relating to several things which are amazing and interesting to watch but in this case “The Play” was when Lawrence Taylor ended Joe Theismann's career on November 18, 1985… which I remember as my first year in law school. It was a surreal and grizzly event on Monday night football and if you watch certain replays you can see Theisman’s bones sticking out of his leg from the compound fracture.
In any case these guys get together each year and spend the weekend together, go through a lottery to get their positions (no one can ever be Theismann twice (or I think Lawrence Taylor either) and then suit up, go to a local middle school field and re-enact “The Play”. I won't go into details about the play but it is historically remembered as a tragically stupid call (a flea flicker) where Theismann hands of to Riggins who then laterals back to Theismann who…. Is destroyed.
Bachelder gives nearly every guy a voice and a roll and they gather for this odd annual event in their lives, catch up with each other and slowly go through the weekend’s rituals. It can be kind of numbing because the writing is such that you can picture how mundane and uninteresting the whole background is. 99% of the book takes place in the lobby and a few of the bedrooms of the hotel. Normally they would at least meet in a conference room but that conference room has been commandeered by “Prestige Vista Solutions” for a sales meeting (and you can feel everything that “Prestige Vista SOlutions” means as they occasionally run into the re-enactors and one lucky, lucky guy gets to take part. For me, the interesting thing is I just finished the book and could not tell you anything about any of the characters other than “Bald Michael” who I think stood out because he was Theismann and because I am bald and Michael.
You might think...uggghhh...you can't remember any of them and the answer is no, I cannot but it isn't because they are boring or uninteresting, it is because they were all so real. Middle aged men with insecurities, triumphs, challenges, prejudices, failure, marital problems, kid problems… it is just a beautiful book about what it is to be a middle aged man in America and while that sounds less than sexy, the book is so well written and has such occasional moments of poignancy and brilliance that anyone could love it.
The payoff is of course in the last ten pages when they finally take to a rainy field with a handful of people (some from Prestige Vista Solutions) looking on and it is a great payoff, wind up and it turns out to be their last gathering and (I know you won't believe it) but it makes a great commentary on the tragedy and the beauty of the human condition and every day and the complicated lives of basically simple men and the rituals we revel in, hate, despise our self for, and need to organize and order how we view our lives.
“They sat in silence, staring up at the television, the muted anchors. Each man was indignant. Beneath the indignation there was an exotic and diverse world of feeling, as dark as an ocean trench.”
That is good shit. It is a good book and you should read it. Even if the story does not get you, the writing style and voice is good enough that you should take notice. The author has a few other books out and I might take notice of those myself.
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