On October 25th, Eleanor Wachtel interviewed Paul Theroux onstage during the International Festival of Authors in Toronto. The hour-long interview was broadcast yesterday on the CBC radio program Writers & Co. If you missed it, it's still available as a podcast.
Theroux turns out to be chatty and pleasant, not at all like the image of himself portrayed in his books, which is that of a rather caustic observer, well matched by the scowling face we see on the covers of his books.
That image, he says, is a persona, one that he's manufactured in both his fiction and his non-fiction. The protagonist in his newest novel, A Dead Hand, meets Theroux and describes him in unflattering terms.
His latest travel book is Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, in which he recreates the epic journey of The Great Railway Bazaar. This one is high on my shopping list.
Frank Hughes is a war vet and old friend of Doc Carroll. He's doing a magazine piece on Eddie Brown, a 29-year-old welterweight whom Doc has been managing for nine years.
He was Doc's fighter. It is what a painter does in his paintings so that you would know them, even without his signature, and what the writer does in his writings, if he is enough of a writer, so you know that no one in the whole world but he could have been the writer.
Eddie's not just a better boxer than the current champ, he's a decent hard-working guy. He's not a showboat. He's as mild-mannered as his training camp diet -- stewed prunes, dry toast, soft-boiled eggs. Everybody likes him, and now he's got a shot at the title.
The month-long training camp and the fight itself are seen through Frank's eyes. We meet an assortment of colourful characters:
Johnny Jay - Doc's pail man
Memphis Kid - Eddie's sparring partner
Barnum, Polo and Charlie Keener - managers
Penna, Schaeffer, Cardone and Booker Boyd - fighters
Only a few of them truly understand the sport of boxing, which is "just too intricate for the average person, fight fan or not, to comprehend." To Frank and Doc, the same seems true for just just about everything else in the world. "Dreadful" is Doc's favourite word.
Tough Prose
Frank and Doc live in hotels and do a lot of drinking and telling of stories -- about the war, about boxing and baseball. Like the time Doc opened his door and an enforcer named Razor Pete took a swipe at him with a knife. Doc drops him with a couple of punches, then politely lifts him to his feet and assists him to the elevator. He and Frank visit Razor Pete's boss, a gangster who wants a piece of Doc's fighter. The gangster compliments Frank's writing, Doc returns Pete's broken knife, and they have a friendly drink together and talk baseball.
Years later Frank bumps into Razor Pete, who is in poor health by then. He's asthmatic and has a bad heart. He offers profuse thanks for a glass of water.
It's a manly world where politeness is not a sign of weakness.
Hemingway
Poppa's influence is obvious from page one. The author, W.C. Heinz, met him during WW2, and when The Professional came out in 1958, Hemingway immediately cabled him from Cuba, saying: "This is the only good novel I've ever read about a fighter."
This edition includes a foreword by Elmore Leonard, who became acquainted with Heinz after he too wrote a congratulatory letter. Leonard mentions his own debt to Hemingway, and remarks that Heinz was "the all-important link, the next step" in his own development as a writer. The two met later when Heinz came out to Detroit to interview Gordie Howe, who lived a few blocks away from Leonard.
Heinz passed away just last year. He's been inducted in the Boxing Hall of Fame, and his "Death of a Racehorse" is considered one of the best sports pieces ever written. His collaboration with a physician resulted in the novel MASH, which appeared under the pseudonym Richard Hooker.
And the Champion Is...
After finishing this book I felt like watching a few boxing movies, and I did -- Million Dollar Baby, Hard Times with Charles Bronson, and my favourite, When We Were Kings, a documentary about the Ali-Foreman fight in Zaire. There's at least one similarity between between the title fight in this book and the "Rumble in the Jungle."
If you're a fan of Hemingway or Elmore Leonard, you'll enjoy The Professional.
I've had this book for a while, purchased when I lived in St. John's and autographed by the author. First published in 1970, it's a semi-autobiographical novel about a dysfunctional Newfoundland family. The father, though hard-working and non-drinking, is a bitter parsimonious man unable to show affection for his family.
The opening three chapters sketch the hardscrabble background of Saul Stone and his wife, Gertrude, and how they came to settle in a mill town in western Newfoundland. The remaining chapters in Part One acquaint us with each of the children: Ank, Flinksy, Racer, Crawfie, Juju, and Fudge.
The sole member of the family to escape the mill town permanently is Juju, the narrator. When he returns for a visit in Part Two, we learn how poorly his siblings have fared as adults. His brothers, drunks all, have created miserable replicas of the original Stone family. Only his sister Flinksy, though an overweight glutton, has a spirit of generosity.
The colourful Irish-inflected dialogue is superb, and perhaps one reason why this book has been called "the great Newfoundland novel."
Percy Janes
The author grew up in Cornerbrook. Like Juju he enlisted in the navy, gained an education, and travelled widely. He served as writer-in-residence at MUN, which now houses his literary papers.
The Percy Janes Award is given annually for the best unpublished novel by a Newfoundland resident, and is worth a nifty $1500.
A Graphic History
A cool black-and-white history that exposes the failings and celebrates the accomplishments of the Beats.
Biographies of Kerouac, Ginzburg, and Burroughs take up the first half, drawn by Ed Piskor and written by Harvey Pekar (of American Splendor fame). Piskor's clean style is a good match for Pekar's treatment, which is gritty, unflinching, and packed with detail. Pekar himself appears in a few panels, directly addressing the reader.
The collaboration, though, is not perfect. Ginzburg, Burroughs, Cassidy, and others are easily recognizable, but Kerouac isn't, either as a handsome young man or a bloated wreck. In one panel he's shown writing with his left hand, in another with his right. And the thoughts and words of the characters are sometimes terribly banal.
Kerouac: This pie is terrific mom; what a gem you are.
Cassady (to Kerouac scaling a ladder): Take it easy, Jack, you might slip.
The last third of the book is the work of several artists and writers, and it is here the excitement of the Beats really comes through. The different styles and viewpoints are so invigorating I wanted to live in a pad and write poetry madly.
Beatnik Chicks, written by Joyce Brabner (Pekar's wife) and drawn by Summer McClinton, is one of the best pieces in the book. It's a potent refutation of the way Beats treated their women.
Other poets and artists covered: Slim Brundage, Gregory Corso, Robert Creeley, Jay deFeo, Diane di Palma, Robert Duncan, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, LeRoi Jones, Tuli Kupferberg (of The Fugs), Philip Lamantia, d.a. Levy, Michael McClure, Kenneth Patchen, Kenneth Rexroth, Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen.
There are also a few general pieces: Art Beats, City Lights Bookshop, Jazz Poetry, and the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance.
Artist Links
The Pekar Project, Ed Piskor's Wizziwig
Gary Dumm, Mary Fleener, Jay Kinney, Peter Kuper, Jeffrey Lewis, Summer McClinton, Trina Robbins, Nick Thorkelson, Anne Timmons, Lance Tooks
Reviews Good & Bad
Boing Boing, Graphic Novel Reporter, New York Times
San Francisco Chronicle, Suite 101, The Oregonian
On October 25th, Eleanor Wachtel interviewed Paul Theroux onstage during the International Festival of Authors in Toronto. The hour-long interview was broadcast yesterday on the CBC radio program Writers & Co. If you missed it, it's still available as a podcast.
