Tinkers by Paul Harding, Paperback: 192 pages, Publisher: Bellevue Literary Press; First Edition 4th Printing edition (January 1, 2009), ISBN-10: 193413712X
Rating: 5 of 5 STARS
Source: 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner, first seen in a bookstore in DC then a friend bought it for me.
Very simply: This is a beautiful book. I've had it in my "to be read" pile and picked it up to take with me on a recent trip to New York.
It's the story of two men, father and son, both "tinkers." (The father is a wagon salesman who piddles with all kinds of odds-and-ends while the son repairs old clocks mostly for a hobby.) The book begins with the last hours of the son's life and then rotates from son to father through the book until eventually the two meet up again after the son is grown. Mainly, the story is about the father, an epileptic living in that late 1800's in New England.
When I read a book I usually dog-ear pages that hold passages, sentences, or phrases I admire and hope to learn from. I only dog-eared one page in Tinkers because the whole book was so beautifully written. I have to admit sometimes I did get a bit lost in the prose... I couldn't always see where Harding was going, but it was like soaking in a bathtub of beautiful, comforting words. I just steeped in it until the story came back to me.
One thing I especially admired about the book was that Harding interspersed excerpts from a book called The Reasonable Horologist by Rev. Kenner Davenport, 1783. The excerpts were lovely and I just assumed it was a real book he was quoting from. Reading up on Harding I discovered that he had made the whole thing up!
Here's a really good interview with Paul Harding from Open Loop Press. (Which, by the way, is a place I plan to explore with a cup of coffee sometime this weekend!) Especially scroll down and find the link where Paul Harding reads from the first pages of his book. It's really good.
Obviously, I highly recommend this book. It's not a quick, entertaining read. It's a piece of art to be savored.
Here's a short little passage from the one page I marked:
He could not have let himself be witness to the simultaneity of his wife passing him a plate of chicken or a basket of hot bread as she worked out her plans to have him taken away. Howard had assumed that their silence over his fits, over everything, stood for his gratefulness to her and her loyalty to him. He has assumed their silence was one of kindness offered and accepted.
Finally, on a personal note - I found it amusing that I happened to be reading this book with all it's connections to time and clocks while also reading A Geography of Time (non-fiction on how time is perceived in different locations) and Einstein's Dreams (collection of 30 fables that represent Albert Einstein's dreams as he was developing the Theory of Relativity.) I find myself thinking a lot about the subject of "time" these days! :-)
Have a wonderful Saturday, bloggy friends!
Very simply: This is a beautiful book. I've had it in my "to be read" pile and picked it up to take with me on a recent trip to New York.
It's the story of two men, father and son, both "tinkers." (The father is a wagon salesman who piddles with all kinds of odds-and-ends while the son repairs old clocks mostly for a hobby.) The book begins with the last hours of the son's life and then rotates from son to father through the book until eventually the two meet up again after the son is grown. Mainly, the story is about the father, an epileptic living in that late 1800's in New England.
When I read a book I usually dog-ear pages that hold passages, sentences, or phrases I admire and hope to learn from. I only dog-eared one page in Tinkers because the whole book was so beautifully written. I have to admit sometimes I did get a bit lost in the prose... I couldn't always see where Harding was going, but it was like soaking in a bathtub of beautiful, comforting words. I just steeped in it until the story came back to me.
One thing I especially admired about the book was that Harding interspersed excerpts from a book called The Reasonable Horologist by Rev. Kenner Davenport, 1783. The excerpts were lovely and I just assumed it was a real book he was quoting from. Reading up on Harding I discovered that he had made the whole thing up!
Here's a really good interview with Paul Harding from Open Loop Press. (Which, by the way, is a place I plan to explore with a cup of coffee sometime this weekend!) Especially scroll down and find the link where Paul Harding reads from the first pages of his book. It's really good.
Obviously, I highly recommend this book. It's not a quick, entertaining read. It's a piece of art to be savored.
Here's a short little passage from the one page I marked:
He could not have let himself be witness to the simultaneity of his wife passing him a plate of chicken or a basket of hot bread as she worked out her plans to have him taken away. Howard had assumed that their silence over his fits, over everything, stood for his gratefulness to her and her loyalty to him. He has assumed their silence was one of kindness offered and accepted.
Finally, on a personal note - I found it amusing that I happened to be reading this book with all it's connections to time and clocks while also reading A Geography of Time (non-fiction on how time is perceived in different locations) and Einstein's Dreams (collection of 30 fables that represent Albert Einstein's dreams as he was developing the Theory of Relativity.) I find myself thinking a lot about the subject of "time" these days! :-)
Have a wonderful Saturday, bloggy friends!
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5 comments:
I loved this book too. Mostly just for the feeling of being soaked in beautiful language.
What a pleasure it was to read that you enjoyed our interview with Paul Harding - he's a splendid writer, and Tinkers is a splendid book. Happy browsing the interviews Open Loop Press. If you find any other rising writers you like, or would like to hear from, we hope you'll let us know.
Thanks for the good review of Tinkers! I had this on my nightstand and didn't read it.... just a time crunch thing. Now I will give it a real try. Sometimes I need encouragement with books that are not plot driven.
I am reading Counsel from the Cross by Elyse Fitzpatrick and would highly recommend it.
Thanks for your reviews. I appreciate the sharing.
From the comment about Tinkers and recommending Counsel from the Cross.....
Forgot to sign my name.
Kim D from SC
thanks for the book review. when i came to your blog this am, i didn't know i would hit upon such a wealth of new info... checking out some of the books on your side bar too.
will look at your post for weekword next.
good visiting your blog again. happy reading this weekend.
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