 | A WRITER'S WIT |  H. Tubman March |
My Book World
Canin, Ethan. A Doubter’s Almanac. New York: Random, 2016.
This novel is about two men, a father and his son, although it implicates so many other characters: the father and his parents, and the son, his father and mother, as well as his siblings. Both father and son are advanced mathematicians, the father so brilliant as to teach for a time at Princeton and win a prestigious award for solving a single complex “problem.” The father is also an alcoholic, and his family bear the brunt of all his boorish sins, including the son who chooses to use his mathematical education to make a fortune on Wall Street. He makes such a fine fortune that he can afford two things: plenty of drugs and the ability to walk away from Wall Street and still have money for him and his family to live on for the rest of their lives.
The former, drugs, he begins “dosing” himself in his teens, with the substance of MDMA or Ecstasy. He somehow knows how to dose himself just enough to stay engaged throughout his schooling. Only later, after he has quit, does his father confront him (takes one to know one). The last part of the novel takes place in the father’s crude cabin in northern Michigan. Father is dying of liver disease, and everyone gathers to watch his bones literally break beneath his skin. A longtime acquaintance of the father leaves the son with enough (something) to euthanize the father when it comes time (ah, were it that easy for any of us). The final chapter, skillfully written and skillfully placed, takes readers back to the son and his sister’s childhood, a rare and beautiful time they share with their father in a boat on the lake. It may be the most memorable episode they have with their brilliant but broken father, and it allows the characters, as most of us do, to recall only the good times they have had with a difficult parent.
Coming Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Erica Jong
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Julia Alvarez
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Mario Vargas Llosa
FRI: My Book World | Stanley Karnow, Paris in the Fifties
This novel is about two men, a father and his son, although it implicates so many other characters: the father and his parents, and the son, his father and mother, as well as his siblings. Both father and son are advanced mathematicians, the father so brilliant as to teach for a time at Princeton and win a prestigious award for solving a single complex “problem.” The father is also an alcoholic, and his family bear the brunt of all his boorish sins, including the son who chooses to use his mathematical education to make a fortune on Wall Street. He makes such a fine fortune that he can afford two things: plenty of drugs and the ability to walk away from Wall Street and still have money for him and his family to live on for the rest of their lives.
The former, drugs, he begins “dosing” himself in his teens, with the substance of MDMA or Ecstasy. He somehow knows how to dose himself just enough to stay engaged throughout his schooling. Only later, after he has quit, does his father confront him (takes one to know one). The last part of the novel takes place in the father’s crude cabin in northern Michigan. Father is dying of liver disease, and everyone gathers to watch his bones literally break beneath his skin. A longtime acquaintance of the father leaves the son with enough (something) to euthanize the father when it comes time (ah, were it that easy for any of us). The final chapter, skillfully written and skillfully placed, takes readers back to the son and his sister’s childhood, a rare and beautiful time they share with their father in a boat on the lake. It may be the most memorable episode they have with their brilliant but broken father, and it allows the characters, as most of us do, to recall only the good times they have had with a difficult parent.
Coming Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Erica Jong
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Julia Alvarez
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Mario Vargas Llosa
FRI: My Book World | Stanley Karnow, Paris in the Fifties
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