Bob Katz

Review: Waiting for Al Gore

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Cover image of "Waiting for Al Gore" by Bob Katz.

Waiting for Al Gore, Bob Katz. Flexible Press (ISBN: 9798988721321) 2024.

Summary: A story that pairs a struggling writer and a struggling environmental group hoping a conference becomes a big story when Gore shows up.

Lenny Beibel is driving his old Toyota Corolla to a rendezvous to pick up two leaders of a fringe environmental group. Rachel Seagrave is the founder of EarthKare and Frederick Wolfram is her earnest but overbearing communications director and assistant. They are meeting the rest of the rag-tag team at a rural Vermont camp owned by EarthKare, which will be the site of what they hope will be a game-changing environmental story. That is, if Al Gore shows up.

Everyone is swinging for the fences here. Lenny is a struggling freelance writer and EarthKare is struggling to hold onto followers. To be sure, they invited Gore months earlier. But his agent keeps stringing them along. Then she offers them a pinch hitter, Henry Marks, a jogger turned motivational speaker with a gig he calls JogThink. His audiences tend to be company retreats and cruise ship passengers. Somehow, the offer becomes a gift–Henry is coming pro bono. Rachel is assured the crowd will love him.

Then another unusual guest makes a fleeting appearance. Oswald’s thrush was thought to be extinct. Then there are several sightings, none long enough to be confirmed, but word gets out to a group of birders. The bird is elusive, the kind you only get to see out of the corner of your eye.

Meanwhile, Henry show up in the midst of preparations for a group of unknown size. And he seems the flake to complement what seems a disaster in the making. His first act is to take the whole group on a jog, not too fast. Slow jogging together spurs creative thinking. Wolfram foresees disaster and sees it as the opportunity to come to the rescue if Henry’s keynote flops. While Wolfram prepares for the worst, both Lenny and Henry do their best to court Rachel. And Rachel is courtable, although neither appear great prospects. The clock is ticking and she is weary of leading EarthKare, despite their urgent mission.

We read on wondering what will become of this trainwreck in the making, especially when a respectable crowd shows up. Bob Katz, a writer I’ve reviewed before, constructs a tale of idealists and bumblers hoping magic will happen in service of their urgent cause. And without preaching, he gets across the point that our situation is such that its not a time to jog but to run like hell but not without hope. You never know when either Oswald’s thrush or Al Gore will turn up.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Elaine’s Circle

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Elaine’s Circle, Bob Katz. Madison, NJ: Munn Avenue Press, 2022.

Summary: Elaine views Circle Time as key to building a learning community with her students. When one of them is diagnosed with a terminal illness, Elaine and her circle of students, including the one dying find ways to make that fourth grade a most extraordinary year.

There was more to Elaine Moore than met the eye. She spoke with a soft voice, hardly the take-charge-in-the-classroom voice. She spent Circle Time every day at the beginning of classes, just talking, and listening to children talk about their lives in small town Alaska. Yet her fourth graders listened, and learned more than just the subjects she taught. They learned about each other and to care for each other as well as how to enlarge the circle by caring for others. Kids were encouraged to find ways to turn each day into a celebration.

This is the story of one year in the life of this gifted, caring teacher, and one class of fourth graders, including one of them, Seamus Farrell, with terminal cancer of the brain. Not the best student, he always worked hard, Quiet but spirited, and always caring about his classmates. It was Seamus, who on a field trip, faced with a fork in the trail at which it wasn’t clear which way to go said, “That way, Mrs. Moore!” He’d been absent a lot as Christmas approached with what was thought the flu going around, with headaches and vomiting–and a funny limp that didn’t quite fit the picture. When his mother, training to be a nurse, saw his response to a neurological test, she knew there was trouble. Surgery revealed an inoperable tumor deep inside his brain. Radiation could knock it back and steroids could control the swelling. They gave him six weeks.

Elaine had faced death before, when faced with breast cancer, and had talked with her students honestly at that time. Now she gathered them again and told them the truth, sensitively but honestly, that Seamus was facing a very serious illness and might not return to class. They talked about the possibility of death, which Elaine deferred to discussions with parents. But the Circle cared and wanted to see Seamus. Working with the principal and parents, arrangements were made for three to four students to visit during lunch several times a week, to go over homework assignments, and to do the one thing Seamus needed most, just to be with him and assure him he was still a part of the class. Later, the class makes a quilt with a square representing each child to present to Seamus. One of the most remarkable instances of Elaine’s bond with Seamus comes in the circumstances in which she presents the quilt to Seamus, an interaction which was literally life-giving.

This is not merely the story of a caring teacher who walks her class through one of the toughest situations they could face. It is the story of Seamus, his courage in the face of death, his honest conversations with a thoughtful pastor, his love for his class, and determination to finish fourth grade and enter fifth grade. It’s the story of a family and community who do their best by one another, faced with such a devastating diagnosis. No platitudes or stupid remarks. No denial of death. No one using the situation for personal advantage. Simply people doing the best they can while their hearts are breaking. Including children, who when treated with honesty and respect, show themselves incredibly creative and caring and responsible.

I reviewed another Bob Katz book, Third and Long, earlier this year. That was a fictional account of an Ohio town facing a factory closure when a drifter comes through, raising hopes for the high school football team and even for the factory. This was a true story. Both gesture toward what communities can be at their best, a message much needed in our divisive times. This also celebrates the significant role of teachers, who, at their best, teach far more than a state-approved curriculum. Here is a story of students, teachers, administrators, and parents, not at odds with each other, but together to care for one courageous child facing death.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author.

Review: Third and Long

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Third and Long, Bob Katz. Minneapolis: Trolley Car Press, 2010.

Summary: When a drifter, once a Notre Dame football star, shows up in Longview, Ohio, he quickly becomes the town’s hope to save its major factory, lead its football team to victory, and maybe save the town.

He’d drifted from town to town after a brief football career, dropping out of Notre Dame. With experience in clothing manufacturing, he got off the train in Longview, Ohio in 1997 to apply for a job as factory manager of the Made Right Clothing Company, the major business in this Ohio River county seat. He almost didn’t make the cut until Marie, the administrative assistant who had taken a shine to him let slip he had a football injury. His abbreviated career at Notre Dame, under the name of Nick Nocero was enough to change the owner’s mind.

It became clear he faced a challenge. There had already been layoffs. Foreign competition was making it more difficult to get contracts. Yet the change was noticeable. Nocero cared, and would help out wherever needed. Working with the union steward, they met some rush contracts and business was up. But that just appeared to make them more attractive to some visiting Korean businessmen discussing a “strategic partnership.”

Longview High School, playing at Made Right Stadium, had fielded a string of mediocre football teams, the Bobcats, under Coach Pruitt, who has just suffered a stroke. The assistant, Sherman, was a math teacher who could do stats but knew little of the game. The Made Right owners put the pressure on for Nick to help. He assists and then takes over, which Sherman was only too glad for him to do. And the team starts winning. Marie’s son Brian plays for them, and he not only plays better, but starts becoming a better student.

Suddenly he is in demand. To speak to the Chamber of Commerce. To swap stories at the American Legion. To get a celebrity to the town’s Christmas tree lighting event. Both for the town and for him, it’s “third and long” and everyone is hoping for a miracle. The company, the school, the town have been just hanging on. Marie, a single mom sees a man who is worthy of her.

It’s hopeful. The team’s winning, the company is making respectable gains, and romance is budding. But there is a secret in Nick’s past that could trip him, and the whole shebang, up, downing them all for a loss.

Bob Katz has captured life in an Ohio town. The cover even looks familiar, like I’ve been in this town. Nearly all the small county seats are just hanging on, if that. If that one big employer pulls out, it changes everything. It has for a number of them. He also captures how a winning team can lift a whole town. Nick both intrigues, with the sense of mystery surrounding his life, about which he say little, and his ability to lead and inspire. Katz understands what a famous pastor once observed, that people love to be led well. The people of the town did, the kids did, and I found myself rooting for Nick, as he tries to make the most of this “third and long” shot to show what he can do, who he can be. This is a finely written story speaking to the hopes we cling to for ourselves, and for the places we call home.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author.