September 12, 2009
Yesterday I read All That I Have by Castle Freeman Jr., a very gentle novel set in Vermont about an Andy Griffith-style Sheriff and the characters of his small, disgruntled town, including his irked wife Clemmie, his cranky in-law Addison, his ambitious deputy Keen, and the local Lothario and ne'er do well, Sean. When lover boy Sean gets mixed up in a burglary out of his league, and first a naked Russian and then a lot of very scary bear-like Russians start to threaten the quiet of his little town, Wing has to restore order, send the burgling lover packing, evict the Russians, and reclaim his wife and title. He does it all without every getting too excited or upset: "it is what it is" is his mantra. Using his brain, his patience, and the activity of others, ensnaring themselves, he untangle their knots, sure as pie, and he does it without fuss.
Wing's quiet ways fool some people some of the time but he has their number: "Look, Sheriff....Look, this. Look, that. Your big lookers, these important fellows are. When you hear that "Look", be careful. Go slow. Because the fellow who's telling you to look don't want you to. He wants you to think he's an honest, plain-talking straight shooter who, when he says "Look" is getting ready to level with you. He ain't. He never is. He says look, but he means don't look."
He is not quite as quick at understanding his wife or father-in-law (educated at Harvard, Addison explains the Russian novel this way: "Thousands of pages, hundreds of people,all with the same names, in places with the same names, doing the same things. That's a Russian novel." Maybe we never understand the ones close to us -- they love us, how can we explain that? -- as easily as we get the ones trying to play us like a fiddle. Will Wing figure them out in the end -- he is Andy Griffith after all -- or will he win the battle but lose the war?
All That I Have is clever, funny, and engaging, in a quiet, quirky, Vermont-like way.
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