The Book of Joe
Author: Jonathan Tropper
The Memory of
Running
Author: Ron McLarty
Author: Ron McLarty
(Blogger Note: These reviews were previously published in "The LAMLight," the physician newsletter published monthly by The Lynchburg Academy of Medicine.)
“An identity would seem to be arrived at by the way in which
the person faces and uses his experience.” – James Baldwin
“It is always the same:
once you are liberated, you are forced to ask who you are.” – Jean
Baudrillard
It is purely by happenstance that I
read these two books back-to-back. They
both deal with basically the same theme of self-discovery and do so in the
setting of similar life-changing circumstances.
The main characters and sub-plots are radically different, however,
making these two very dissimilar novels dealing with similar themes. Both authors have an entertaining style and
infuse a good bit of humor into what could have been very maudlin stories.
The main character in Ron McLarty’s
The Memory of Running is Smithson
“Smithy” Ide, an obese, alcoholic, chain smoking, single Viet Nam war
veteran. He works as a quality control
inspector in a toy factory in Rhode
Island making sure that action figures are assembled
correctly. As the story begins both of
Smithy’s parents are killed in a freak car accident. While going through his parents’ mail after
their funeral he discovers that his only sibling, a mentally ill older sister,
has died and her body remains to be claimed in a morgue in Los
Angeles. After a drunken binge Smithy
impulsively decides to ride his old red Raleigh
bicycle to L.A.
to claim his sister’s body. The story is
told by Smithy in the first person and the chapters alternate between his
mis-adventurous cross-country bike ride and his turbulent adolescence dealing
with his sister’s bizarre behavior. The
sub-plot of major significance involves Smithy’s childhood neighbor Norma, a
girl four years his junior who had a persistent crush on him. Smithy always rebuffed her, especially after
an accident left her paraplegic. Smithy stays
in contact with Norma throughout his bike ride and his discussions with her
reveal his own self-discovery. During his trip Smithy is run over by a dying HIV patient,
threatened at gunpoint by the son of a Viet Nam war buddy in a ghetto in East St. Louis and is
swept into a cross-mountain bike race in California. Each encounter teaches Smithy something
valuable about himself. The final
chapter is exceptional. Smithy finally
accepts himself for who he is, understands the wonder of unconditional love and
exorcises the demons guilt and self-recrimination which resulted from his
dysfunctional adolescence.
Joe Goffman is the main character
in Jonathan Tropper’s The Book of Joe. Joe is the antithesis of Smithy Ide. While Smithy is reminiscent of the classic
comic character Ignatious Reilly from John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces, Joe would seem more in the mold of Sherman
McCoy, Tom Wolfe’s “Master of the Universe” from Bonfire of the Vanities. Joe
is in his early thirties and is a successful novelist living in a posh Manhattan apartment. His first book was an autobiographical novel
based on his own adolescence in the small town of Bush Falls, Connecticut.
Because of many revealing and embarrassing details regarding the
residents of his hometown he has not returned for seventeen years and has
remained estranged from his family.
Joe’s father suffers a severe stroke which prompts Joe to return to Bush Falls
and confront all of the unresolved issues from his past. This is another first person narrative, and
Joe alternates between stories and anecdotes from his current visit home
and the story of his senior year in high school which was the basis for his
sensational novel. The subplots
involve Joe’s high school girlfriend and one true love Carly, and two male best
friends. The two best friends had a
homosexual relationship as high school seniors, the reactions to and bitterness
arising from which is the centerpiece of Joe’s novel. Joe’s journey of self-discovery is more of an
inward one compared to Smithy’s bike ride, but it is difficult and yet
rewarding all the same. The resolution
of all of the subplots is not as satisfying as in The Memory of Running, but Joe does discover a lot about himself
over the course of this book and there is hope for the future (and a probable
sequel).
Both of these books are well
written: fast paced with excellent dialogue and imagery. There is a generous dose of humor in both, The Book of Joe containing the more
ribald kind. I enjoyed them both
immensely.
