Rabbit Ears

I cannot think of a single author I have enjoyed reading more in recent years than Charles Baxter.  The thing is, I can't explain why I like him so much.   Watch me now as I fail miserably.

If you are lucky enough to find one of his books in your local store (much of his backlist has never appeared in the UK) then it won't particularly stand out.  It is unlikely that the blurb on the back will lure you in.  On the surface his work looks unspectacular.  You would be forgiven for seeing him as just another midlist American author.

But you would be wrong.  So very wrong.  And you'd be missing out on a treat.

I first came across Baxter when I picked up a proof of Feast Of Love during my first few months at Waterstone's.  I didn't get sent any books in those days so I tended to root around the proof shelves and would pick up anything that looked remotely interesting.  I loved it and was keen to read more but couldn't find anything available in the UK.  So I slowly started picking up books from the States.  He has a few other novels as well as story collections and also essays on writing.  The pick of the bunch is his most recent novel Saul & Patsy.

Shadow Play is an early novel from 1993 and was another of my reading pile books.  Being familiar with his more recent work I worried that this may not be as good, it was written 15 years ago after all, but my concerns were unfounded.  It seems that I am destined to love anything this man writes.

But what am I making such a fuss about?  I am afraid I find it difficult to explain.  Baxter tends to write about people and relationships, but he does so with a remarkable insight as to what makes people tick.  With just a few words he can sum up a lifetime of hope, failure, or frustration.  On my literary slide rule he sits somewhere between Anne Tyler (effortlessly readable) and Richard Yates (painfully honest).

Shadow Play is the story of Wyatt Palmer.  Told in four parts we see a glimpse of his childhood and a tragic event from it; his courting of and early his with his wife (gymnast and magician) Susan; their world slowly unravelling as Wyatt helps an old school friend site a factory in the town; and a hint as to their future.  It reminded me a little of Tyler's The Amateur Marriage, although it pre-dates that book somewhat and covers a smaller period of time.  But it is in that sort of area.

Here is a paragraph I particularly enjoyed.  Wyatt is driving around with his baby daughter in the back of the car, trying to get her to sleep.

..he had seen, halfway out to nowhere, a grown man dressed up in an engineer's outfit chugging around the yard to the side of his house, seated in a waist-high model steam railroad train on an oval track.  Behind him, near the front door, his wife was pruning the roses, oblivious.  A marriage.

It is that last two word sentence that does it.  He captures a lifetime in two words.  Wonderful.

Shadow Play has never been published over here, and I have never seen it in a bookshop, but there seem to be a few going cheap on Amazon and there may be others elsewhere.  Buy it now and thank me later.

Comments

[Anne Brooke]

A cross between Yates & Tyler? Sounds fab! Though I have to say I wasn't greatly taken with the most recent Tyler - it did drag a bit ...

:((

A
xxx

[DJ Kirkby]

Sold! Would prefer to buy it from TFP though...

[DJ Kirkby]

Why is your post title 'Rabbit ears'?

[Scott Pack]

Rabbit ears? Because of shadow animals. Oh, and there is a rabbit in the book, but you wouldn't know that.

[John]

Slightly off-topic:
Just read this on The Bookseller:
http://thebookseller.com/news/52817-the-friday-project-up-for-sale.html

Pretty good going for what you claim is a 'small indie' eh Scott?

Not sure how you can now justify your claim but I reckon you will try.

[Rachel Green]

Aargh!
I've ordered it. Please stop recommending books, as I now have a 3' high 'to read' pile.

[Ted]

I'm a big fan of Charles Baxter and think I'd have to call Shadow Play my favorite of his. BTW, I'm reading Electricity on your suggestion and loving it.

[al jolson]

Also just saw the article in The Bookseller saying The Friday Project has been up for sale, and will probably sell to your distributors.

From the figures, I agree, it doesn't look as if The Friday Project has been a small publisher for a while.
When you're an imprint, instead of an indie, it just struck me The Friday Project could get stocked in many more bookshops, and the takeover company couldt cut the personal consultancy.

[Scott Pack]

John and Al - for hopefully obvious reasons I can't really comment on the news reports. What I can say is that they are not 100% accurate. Actually, they aren't even 50% accurate.

[DJ Kirkby]

oh... far too subtle for me Scott! Eagerly awaiting delivery of the book so I can read it! Which means I had better get a move on with 'The suicide shop' as that is next on my reading pile.

[al jolson]

This was the news reported over at The Literary Saloon Complete Review yesdterday but nobody there knows much (haha just kidding):

The Friday Project cashes out ?

In The Bookseller Tom Tivnan reports that The Friday Project up for sale:
Pan Macmillan is believed to be the front-runner to acquire The Friday Project (TFP), which is currently in talks with several parties over a sale.
No word yet about any potential sale at the official site, or at the weblog of Commercial Director Scott Pack, Me And My Big Mouth (or, for that matter, at Girl Friday).

http://www.complete-review.com/saloon/index.htm

[liam]

So IF this does go through then another indie bites the dust. No good saying it's a move to HELP the company survive and thrive. The ethos is/was that TFP was a new and fresh indie that gave a choice to readers (choice that is lacking in the profit driven, mass best-seller, high profile cash cow books/authors). Once they sell out (no other word for it) then the whole thing is swallowed by a giant who, again, has succeeded in increasing it's stranglehold while removing an indie that was indeed thriving and providing a much needed injection of variety and difference.

It's sad but it happens time and time again - and will continue happening.

I suppose that it is inevitable given that the people who start these companies are business people first and foremost, with profits being the sole key factor to consider. This is why choice has been removed from the high-street forcing us all to shop at Tesco etc instead of the local butcher/baker.

Success in business today is measured bythe ability to eliminate competition before it gets too big to pose a thread.

If this goes ahead then all that can be said is...
RIP TFP