At one point in my father's stay here, I said out loud to someone that what distinguishes my father from the rest of the world's fathers is his reading list. Rarely do I run into anyone who has read the books my father recommends. And yet, they're quite good. Here, for your edification, is his list:
Negley Farson, "The Way of a Transgressor." Margaret Craven, "I Heard the Owl Call My Name" Robert Marshall, "The Haunted Major" Damon Runyon, "The Best of Damon Runyon" Leonard Q. Ross, "The Education of Hyman Kaplan"What characterizes the list? Four of the authors were American, one (Marshall) was British. All but one of them (Owl) were published in the first half of the twentieth century. While one book is about golf--my father's true passion--what he finds interesting about the rest, as far as I can tell, is a kind of humanism, a sense that people are delightful in their odd ways and that what we should cherish is endeavor, folk trying to get on in life. In Damon Runyon my father likes Harry the Horse, who advises people to go where the big potatoes are falling, because sometimes small potatoes also fall from the cart. Negley Farson he likes for his embrace of adventure and his stoicism; Farson goes to live in British Columbia's wilderness in spite of a bacterial infection of a leg bone, something he picked up during the Russian Revolution. Margaret Craven draws out the Scottish sentimentality which causes my father to think of my mother as some version of Burns' Highland Mary, but Craven also wrote of endurance and the power of doing. Hyman Kaplan is an immigrant tale, summed up by a small excerpt:
Mr Kaplan was an earnest student. He worked hard, knit his brows regularly (albeit with a smile), did all his homework, and never missed a class. Only once did Mr. Parkerhill feel that Mr. Kaplan might, perhaps, be a little more *serious* about his work. That was when he asked Mr. Kaplan to "give a noun."
"Door," said Mr. Kaplan, smiling.It seemed to Mr. Parkhill that "door" had been given only a moment earlier, by Miss Mitnick.
"Y-es," said Mr. Parkhill. "Er--and another noun?" "Another door," Mr. Kaplan replied promptly.So what is this list? Well first of all it's an ancient irritant. When I was growing up and wanted to discuss my latest reading find, instead of, "Oh yes, Graham Greene is good" or "I've never been fond of Lawrence," or even "Who on earth is Bulgakov?" I'd get, "Have you tried Negley Farson?" I used to think that he'd made the name up. I mean who could possibly be called "Negley Farson"?
But beyond that it's a reminder that tastes change. Each of these books once had a very wide readership. Some of them are still in print. (My father actually persuaded a golfing friend to re-print, "The Haunted Major" and now I find there's a "John Updike" edition.) One, I see from the internet, has a "study guide" (owl). Time, like a father, holds us for a while and then...naffs off somewhere else.
David Ritchie, Portland, Oregon ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
