The Biblio Blogazine

In The Wake of the Boatman by Jonathon Scott Fuqua
ISBN 978-1890862-42-8
Fiction, 305 pages
Bancroft Press

FTC Disclosure: Review copy provided by publisher

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In the wake of the boatman. The boatman being a father, husband, role model. Or is he? His son isn’t so sure.

Neither is the father:

Over and over, his mind fastened on the fact that he had no idea how to give his son a hug. It seemed a completely different act from hugging his wife or daughter…Suddenly, he felt old, warn, and permanently immovable.

There is a lot of angst in this book. Much of it related to relationships both personal and familial as well as toward gender and identity.

Pretty powerful stuff. Let me tell you, this is not a light read.

But I enjoyed it. Even though I struggled a bit to understand the depth of the father-son relationship, which is what this story is primarily about.

Not to get too personal, but it’s a dynamic I am just now discovering through my marriage. I had never seen one in action, and it still remains somewhat of a mystery.

Carl and his son Puttnam (the protagonist) are not characters that endeared themselves to me. There were a few times that I really disliked both, intensely.

I believe this is because the characters dislike themselves a great deal, and this shines through and glares upon their fatal flaws. Imperfection is put on display in a harshness that is only tempered by the relationships each man has with the women in the family.

The roles of women in this book are subtle, but important. Like the men, they are flawed. However they are the strength and the glue that keeps the family together and moving forward toward a resolution.

The author doesn’t end the novel in a way that redeems Putt or his father. Not completely. This is not a bad thing. He does leave the reader with hope  that Putt will become a likeable person, not only to us, but more importantly, to himself.

As I said, this isn’t a light read, but by no means is it a challenging one. Just like Goldilocks, I’m gonna say it’s juuust right.

There are some who don’t care for Virginia Woolf’s books. Especially her stream-of-conscious narratives such as The Waves.

However, besides writing novels, she was a prolific critic and essay writer. One of her most famous is A Room of One’s Own.

It is this essay, and many others, that make me wonder why they aren’t more highly regarded outside of academia.

Yet I know I am not the only one discovering and discussing the joys of essays. Thank goodness!

To give you a glimpse into the beauty of Woolf’s writing, let me share a passage:

That collar I have spoken of, women and fiction, the need of coming to some conclusion on a subject that raises all sorts of prejudices and passions, bowed my head to the ground. To the right and left bushes of some sort, golden and crimson, glowed with the color, even it seemed burnt with the heat, of fire. On the further bank the willows wept in perpetual lamentation, their hair about their shoulders. The river reflected whatever it chose of the sky and bridge an burning tree, and when the undergraduate had oared his boat through the reflections they closed again, completely, as if he had never been. There one might have sat the clock round lost in thought. Thought – to call it by a prouder name than it deserved – had let its line down into the stream. It swayed, minute after minute, hither and thither among the reflections and the weeds, letting the water lift it and sink it, until – you know the little tug – the sudden conglomeration of an idea at the end of one’s line: and then the cautions hauling of it in, and the careful laying of it out? Alas, laid on the grass how small, how insignificant this thought of mine looked; the sort of fish that a good fisherman puts back into the water so that it may grow fatter and be one day worth cooking and eating.

As one who reads, and occasionally tries to write, this passage spoke volumes. And there are many others in this amazing essay. At a little over one hundred pages, it isn’t too hard of a read, and well worth a purchase or checking out from your library.