Literary fiction

Review: George Passant

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Cover image of "George Passant" by C. P. Snow

George Passant

George Passant (Strangers and Brothers, 2) C. P. Snow Open Road Integrated Media (ISBN: 9781504096966) 2024, first published 1940.

Summary: A charismatic young solicitor gathers a group of mentees. Business schemes with two others lead to fraud charges.

“And so with the others of George’s group … George had set us moving, lent us money: he never seemed to think twice of lending us money … It was the first time we had been near to a generous-hearted man. We became excited over the books he told us to read and the views he stood by … We were carried away by his belief in human beings and ourselves.“

And so we are introduced to the central character, George Passant, of the second of C.P. Snow’s “Strangers and Brothers” series, held together by its narrator, Lewis Eliot, whose career we trace in the course of the series. [The novel is actually the first to be written and carried the title Strangers and Brothers until Snow developed the series, using that for the series name and retitling this book after its main character.]

George Passant is the charismatic young solicitor, working as the manging clerk of Eden and Martineau, a law firm in a small town. Beginning in the 1920’s, he gathered a group of students from a nearby school where he was a lecturer, including Lewis Eliot. He was generous with his ideas, his funds, and his support of their budding careers. He was also profligate in sexual matters, both with some women in the group as well as prostitutes. The group gathers at cafes, in each others’ flats, and overnights at a farm they rent out.

One of the group, Jack Cotery, became his special cause. Cotery is an apprentice at a newspaper. The publisher’s son, Roy Calvert, develops a crush on Jack. Therefore, when father finds out, he withdraws support for printers’ training at the college. George responds with outrage, and against the counsel of friends, defends Jack with the scholarship board. He wins a partial victory but makes enemies and undermines his prospects to advance to partner at Eden and Martineau.

However, he persists with the group, and gives Jack as much support as he can as Cotery undertakes various business ventures. We’re now into the 1930’s. Eliot’s career has taken off in London. But Jack and George are still back in small town England. George has aspirations for so much more, financially and with the group, where his life is. Jack brings him an opportunity to do that. Martineau has had a religious awakening and not only is selling off his interest in the firm, but an ad agency with an advertising newspaper that is his side hustle. He overstates the circulation, and because of his reputation, no one questions the numbers.

Olive Calvert, Roy’s sister, who is in a relationship with Jack, also joins the effort. They recruit investors and the business flourishes sufficiently to consider a second venture. They decide to acquire the farm, both for the use of the group and as a hostel. All is going well until one of the investors accuses them of fraud based on the advertising newspaper’s inflated circulation figures. Eliot, becomes their lawyer, and at the insistence of Eden, becomes co-counsel with his old supervisor, Herbert Getliffe.

Not only is some of the evidence indicative of intent to defraud. Both testimony, and a diary of George’s reveal compromising moral goings-on, for which the farm provided cover. All this leads Eliot to reassess his mentor. A good part of the book covers the preparation for and trial of the three.

Reading this book made me think of C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man and particularly the phrase “men without chests.” Lewis used this to describe the debilitating effect of moral relativism on intelligent and ambitious people:

“You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more ‘drive’, or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or ‘creativity’. In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful” [The Abolition of Man (New York: Touchstone, 1996), p. 37].

This is an apt description of the people we meet in George Passant. They do not lack in intelligence, sophistication, charisma, or drive. There is competence without character. They seem to live in a world where all is gray. It’s a world lacking in color. And yet, Snow offers a fascinating exploration of a group of people navigating just such a world.

Review: The Things We Never Say

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Cover image of "The Things We Never Say" by Elizabeth Strout

The Things We Never Say

The Things We Never Say, Elizabeth Strout. Random House (ISBN: 9798217154746) 2026.

Summary: Outwardly, Artie Dam is a beloved teacher; yet his life is fraught with the secrets kept by him and others.

He’s won “teacher of the year” awards. Students love and colleagues respect fifty-seven year old Artie Dam of the white socks and dumpy black tennis shoes. He teaches history. But more than that, he teaches students what special and unique persons they are. He lives on the New England coast and the beautiful old family home of his wife Evie. The son of a handyman/apartment supervisor whose mother struggled with insanity, his marriage to Evie meant marrying up into a wealthy family. However life seems good with outings with close friends and sailing in the bay.

And yet Artie is deeply troubled. It is the run-up to the 2024 election and its troubling prospects. Then there are all the unresolved feelings about his son, Rob’s, accident in which the girl he was with died. Since that time, Rob has become more distant, although successful in his work. The accident separates him, he senses, from Evie, who deals with her grief by becoming a therapist. A family friend he often confided in moves away after her husband’s death and he misses her. He expresses these things only to himself in his thoughts. He even obsesses about ending his life through suicide.

Then a boating accident where he nearly drowned brings him to understand he does not want to die. Not only that, his son, who seems to have suspected that he might have tried ending his life, draws closer. And he begins meeting Ken Moynihan, and starts sharing some of the secrets and questions that trouble him. It lifts him.

Then he learns of a secret involving his wife and closest friends. Not only that, it is a secret they knew. So, what should Artie do? Does he participate in the secret, acting as if he doesn’t know? Or does he reveal that he knows, risking his marriage?

It tears Artie apart. He even takes up petty shop-lifting. Meanwhile, he continues to care deeply for his students, particularly a troubled young woman and young man, whose lives he changes. But can he live with the loneliness of the unspoken, the secret lives and lies of which he is a part?

Strout explores the deep pain of human existence. Although we may seem embedded in close relationships, there are the secret hopes, the hidden transgressions “we never say.” We long to know and make ourselves known to others. Yet, we fear that such revelations may shatter rather than strengthen relationships. And so we live in the proximate companionships, respecting the boundaries of what we cannot say. Yet we long for one who knows all our secrets and never flinches, and never stops loving.

Review: Northanger Abbey

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Cover image of "Northanger Abbey" by Jane Austen

Northanger Abbey

Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen. Penguin Classics (ISBN: 9780141439792) 2003, first published 1817.

Summary: Catherine Moreland, in her first social season, avoids the attentions of one man and visits the family home of another.

Catherine Moreland was a clergyman’s daughter and one of ten children. A former tomboy, she has turned into an attractive seventeen-year old woman. She also loves to read Gothic novels. Family friends, the Allens invite her to join them for the summer social season at Bath. It is a round of balls, dances, and social gatherings. All of it fascinates her, but she and the Allens do not know anyone. Then they meet the Thorps.

Daughter Isabella and Catherine soon become fast friends, introducing her to The Mysteries of Udolpho. It’s all Catherine can talk about. But it all gets complicated when Catherine’s brother James and Isabella’s brother John join them. They are friends at Oxford. Isabella and James fall in love and get engaged, only to learn they will have to wait two years to marry when James receives a living worth £400. Meanwhile, John directs his attentions to Catherine but she does not return them.

Instead, Catherine likes Henry Tilney, a young clergyman with a benefice that is part of his father’s estate. Like so many Austen novels, she hope to run into Henry and deepen the acquaintance, with John doing his best to distract her. Finally, things look up when Henry’s father meets her and extends an invitation to visit the family at Northanger Abbey. Perhaps it’s just as well, because Isabella has begun flirting with Henry’s brother, leading to a breakup of the engagement.

Aside from Gothic fantasies about the old abbey, things go well. Catherine gets on well with Eleanor, Henry’s younger sister, and her somewhat eccentric father. Then there is a sudden turn. While Henry is away Catherine is suddenly sent back to her parents while the Tilneys leave on an unannounced visit to friends. Clearly, she has done something to arouse the ire of Henry’s father. But she hasn’t a clue. She has to go on a 70 mile journey without an escort and even has to borrow money to get home. A sad homecoming indeed. It doesn’t end here and you might be able to guess from other Jane Austen stories how it does. But you won’t hear it from me.

The novel has an interesting history. While published posthumously at the end of 1817, along with Persuasion, Austen completed a draft of the novel in 1799. Austen may have begun writing it as early as 1794. She also may have worked on revisions at the end of her life. This may account for the disjunct between the Bath portion of the novel and the Northanger Abbey portion. It feels like two stories stitched together. Also, there is this weird thing with multiple loves between three families, the Morelands, Thorps, and Tilneys. It sounds kind of in-bred.

Like other Austen novels money as well as love seems to dictate the affairs of love. And like so many, those who focus on money often end up surprised to find out the value of character. Finally, Northanger Abbey, with its wardrobes, closed off wings, and valley setting creates the perfect setting to spook Gothic-fascinated Catherine. I wonder if Austen was having fun spoofing the Gothics!

Review: Tell Me Everything

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Cover image of "Tell Me Everything" by Elizabeth Strout

Tell Me Everything

Tell Me Everything, Elizabeth Strout. Random House (ISBN: 9780593446119) 2025.

Summary: While Bob Burgess represents a murder suspect, he and those around him tell stories of their and other lives.

I understand that the working title of this work was The Book of Bob. Strout opens the book describing him, a description we see bearing out in this book:

“This is the story of Bob Burgess, a tall, heavyset man who lives in the town of Crosby, Maine, and he is sixty-five years old at the time we are speaking of him. Bob has a big heart, but he does not know that about himself; like many of us, he does not know himself as well as he assumes to, and he would never believe he had anything worthy in his life to document. But he does; we all do.”

One of the main threads of the story is the relationship Bob, a semi-retired criminal defense lawyer develops with Matt Beach. Matt was a reclusive artist who cared for his mother Gloria Beach. He came home to find her missing and called the police. But she wasn’t found until the following March in a quarry pool near a missing rental vehicle. Gloria Beach was a miserable person for most people to be around, nicknamed “Bitch Ball” when she’d work in the school cafeteria. Suspicions focused on Matt though there was no hard evidence tying him to her murder. Matt’s sister, Diana, a successful school counselor asks Bob to become his lawyer. He is perhaps the first to listen to Matt and becomes his friend, even staying with him for several nights when he is particularly troubled. He discovers Matt’s artistic gifts. That’s the murder mystery part of this novel.

The novel revolves around the telling and unfolding of life stories. The other thread running through the novel are the walks Bob and author Lucy Barton take together. “Tell me everything” is the refrain describing their conversations. Bob talks about his brother Jim and his own troubled past, having accidentally killed his father as a child playing in the family call, accidentally putting it in gear, rolling over his father. Lucy discusses her troubled relationship with her daughters. She also recounts her conversations with Olive Kitteridge. Although ninety-one, Olive’s memory is sharp, and she shares with Lucy stories of “unrecorded lives.” Soon, Lucy reciprocates, although Olive doesn’t always appreciate the stories.

Lucy is back together with her ex, William. Bob is husband to the Unitarian minister, Margaret Estaver. There are no conflicts between them but in some ways Bob and Margaret have grown apart. People, even William and Margaret, see Bob and Lucy as “just friends” but we sense the emotional intimacy grow between them through the book, a crisis Bob confesses to his brother Jim.

Bob and Jim grow closer in the book when Jim’s wife Helen dies. Jim comes to terms with what a poor husband, father, and brother had been. He claims he was the one who put the car in gear that day. Bob and his sister remember things differently. In the end, it is uncertain, but Bob bears the marks of this on his life. Lucy describes him as a “sin eater,” one who absorbs the hard stories of others while caring for them.

And the point of all the telling of stories? Lucy expresses it to Olive this way, “People and the lives they lead. That’s the point.” But we also see in the telling of stories characters growing in self-awareness and depth–Matt Beach, Margaret, Jim, and indeed, Bob and Lucy become more fully themselves. Indeed, one of the things Bob experiences is the discovery through the words of others the “worthiness” of his life.

One comes away from this Elizabeth Strout novel with the sense that there is no such thing as an insignificant life. Even Gloria Beach had lovingly cared for Matt as a child when his life was in danger. And not unlike my reaction to Theo of Golden, I found myself wanting to be more like this Bob. Both men affirmed the worth of others simply by noticing and naming that worthiness. This is not a small thing, it seems.

Review: Mule Boy

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Cover image of "Mule Boy" by Andrew Krivak

Mule Boy

Mule Boy, Andrew Krivak. Bellevue Literary Press. (ISBN: 9781954276468) 2026.

Summary: New Years Day 1929 changed Ondro Prach’s life. His first day as mule boy was also the day he alone survived a mine collapse.

His mother tried to avoid sending Ondro to the mines. But finally, when the mine foreman came by to offer him the beginning job of nipper, she relented. Ondro’s father had died in the mines. Ondro worked hard and soon became a spragger. Then, he was offered the job of mule boy, leading the mule that pulled cars in and out of the mine. He was assigned Wicked, who lived up to his name. But he fed him carrots and spoke softly to him in Slovak, and Wicked gave him no trouble.

His first day as mule boy was New Year’s Day. He worked with the miners John Chibala and Stefan Bozak, and their butties Emil and Matty. The whole team worked rapidly to clear the room of coal, to finish early. But just as they were loading the last bit, the mine collapsed, save for a space around a supporting beam. All but Ondro were badly injured, including Wicked who was killed in the collapsed entrance to the room.

Emil and Matty die first. Stefan and John live longer, sharing the light of carbide lamps to help Ondro dig a way out. On breaks, as their lives wane, they talk about their love of life and what it is to meet death. Ondro wonders if this dark place will be his tomb and how he will meet death. With John’s dying breath, after he has spoken of missing his daughter Magda, he points out the way for Ondro to escape, and Ondro does, but too late for the others he leaves behind.

Ondro and his mother move away but life is hard. Others mock him as “the mule boy” and he gets in fights, including one where he badly injured the other boy. So he vows never again to use violence. He works in a brewery, frequently drunk. But he begins a relationship with Magda Chibala, John’s daughter. They marry, but his drinking creates tension between them. Then the draft comes and when he reports, he refuses induction because of his vow. He spends most of the war in prison. Magda requests an annulment and marries another man.

But prison saves him. He stops drinking and meets Jacobson. Jacobson is a Jew and teaches him enough Hebrew to read the book of Jonah, which he will read each sabbath for the rest of his life. And he teaches him the philosophy of Parmenides. And then he is released to serve out the war at a fire lookout and forest ranger in New England, settling there alone and staying on until he retires. Then the visits begin from the families of the miners, wanting to know of their loved ones’ last moments and final words. And through these visits, the full story of the cave-in and escape emerges. Finally, Magda comes. And he shares things about her father never spoken in their brief marriage. But what of them?

Jonah seems particularly significant to understanding this story. Ondro spends days in the belly of the earth; Jonah in the belly of the fish. Both were dark places, death places. The great fish vomits up Jonah. Ondro crawls through the rotting carcass of Wicked. They both live, but never the same. And they both carry “words” for others.

The story is one continuous sentence, reflecting the unfolding memories of Ondro looking back. I have to admit finding it hard to find stopping places, but the continuous narrative makes sense of the flow of his life, interwoven with memories of the fateful events of the mine. It’s a compelling story of meeting death and making meaning of life, often with much faltering along the way and with the help of others. I found it an exquisite story, one in which every word does its work, with nothing extraneous.

_____________

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

Review: Whistler

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Cover image of "Whistler" by Ann Patchett

Whistler

Whistler, Ann Patchett. HarperCollins (ISBN: 9780063511637) 2026.

Summary: When Daphne Fuller runs into the stepfather she hadn’t seen for forty years, they reconnect, understanding the bond between them.

It was supposed to be a day for Daphne and Jonathan Fuller to enjoy being together at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Then Jonathan notices that an older man is following them. And they are unable to elude him. Finally, they talk to him to discover that the man is Eddie Triplett, Daphne’s stepfather. It has been over 40 years since she last saw him. She’d more or less put the brief time her stepfather was in her life away in a box. He’s now in his seventies but still working as an editor at a major publishing house.

And yet we discover that there is a deep bond, forged in a traumatic accident. Between meetings in the present, the story flashes back to the accident and the events that unfolded that winter night. While Daphne’s sister Leda was in the hospital for appendicitis, Eddie picked up Daphne after school on a cold wintry evening. Before taking her home in their big Chevy station wagon, he wanted to take her to out to a raspberry farm at the top of a hill. However, he missed a turn and they slid off the road into the woods. Eddie injured his left ankle, trapped under the emergency brake, as well as his left shoulder. Daphne, in her seat belt, only had a bad facial cut.

During their time in the car, we learn the story of Whistler, a horse in a story Eddie never published. The author never submitted it for publication. The horse rescues its owner and the story was so powerful that Eddie had a rendering of Whistler in his office. We come to see there is more than one Whistler in the story.

Jonathan, a hospital administrator Daphne met while caring for her dying father, Buddy Zabriskie, is away in Wisconsin, cleaning out his parents home. He’s also reconnecting with the past. In fact, reconnecting and understanding is an important part of this book. When she and Eddie go to meet Skip and Polly Hotalling, she learns the real reason her mother divorced Eddie. It wasn’t because of the accident. She comes to a reckoning with all three men who had been “fathers.” And she comes to understand more of her mother, with whom she hadn’t been close.

Most of all, as Daphne revisits the events of forty years ago, she recognizes qualities that have been part of who she is–with Eddie, with Jonathan, with the girls she teaches. She also learns lessons about life’s impermanence from Eddie and how accepting that can yield happiness.

Acceptance of life’s givenness seems to be a quality of Patchett’s most recent books. There is a maturity here that I can’t help but thinks reflects a maturity in Patchett. As always, Patchett writes with exquisite beauty. Added to this are the deepened insights of coming to terms with one’s past, one’s people, and one’s self.