Inside the Kingdom

INSIDE THE KINGDOM August 31, 2016 the Chronicle Section B – 20 Pages Review Novel rings true to author’s Kingdom roots Flypaper Dreams, by Jay Kendall. he’d like to smoke a pipe. His 165 pages. Paperback. $13.95 father, a storekeeper, says, okay. Questioned by a customer Reviewed by Tena Starr about the wisdom of that, Hank, says, “‘Absolutely! It makes all There are both pros and cons kinds of sense. It shows he’s involved in self-publishing a book. growin’ up. I was younger than he The pros are that it’s difficult to get is now when I started smokin’ corn a book, even a very good one, silk behind my father’s barn.’ published these days through “So Henry helps his son choose traditional means. Self-publication a pipe from the store, and then the allows some books that would have tobacco, and he carefully shows never, otherwise, seen the light of him how to tamp it. day to get into print and be read. “‘I myself smoke Union Leader, One of the bigger drawbacks, but we’ve got quite a few others,’” however, is that the self-published Henry tells his son. ‘All right, so seldom seek outside help — as in an now you’ve got your pipe, and you’ve editor to advise on how a manuscript got your tin of tobacco. The next could be improved — or even a thing is to learn how to pack it. proofreader to check for obvious Now this is something that takes typos, misspellings and the like. practice. You don’t want it too loose We’ve seen many such books and or too tight, just a nice even smoke. find it unfortunate. Mechanical Now you watch me do it once.’ error, as well as implausibility, “His father showed him the detract from the dignity of a story. procedure, adding comments and Jay Kendall’s Flypaper Dreams cautions as he went. Then he does not suffer from those flaws. His knocked the tobacco out and is a well and cleanly written story. handed the pipe back to Zack. Mr. Kendall is currently retired ‘Okay, now you try it, and I’ll and lives in Arizona. But he grew watch you to make sure you’ve got up in Newport, in Skunk Hollow. the hang of it.’ Standing over Zack, He graduated from UVM with a Henry was completely attentive degree in English and went on to and encouraging. be a teacher and counselor. As a “Zack had never felt such a graduate school field worker for the close connection to his father Dictionary of American Regional before. By lucky accident he’d English, he collected the dialect of discovered a common interest and the Northeast Kingdom where he launched the kind of father-son grew up, and in this book he does relationship he’s always wanted. what so many have tried and so He tried to blow smoke rings like few have been successful at: He his dad’s, and Henry laughed at his a terrific character, who isn’t what And the first time he heard himself recreates both characters and attempts. But the laughter anyone would call a deep thinker, on tape, Mr. Kendall said he was language that ring true to this warmed Zack, and he thought but she’s realistically portrayed. surprised to hear his own accent, small part of the world. about Sunday evenings in summer She’s a fusser and fretter. which he has since tried to remedy. Largely, this novel explores a when they’d sit on the porch and “You know I can’t help it,” she Mr. Kendall said he started young man’s relationship with his smoke together. Then his dad tells Zack at one point. “I worry. writing novels —this is his second father, who has recently died. It would teach him how to blow It’s what I do.” — when he found himself was a fraught relationship, smoke rings, and they would talk It’s a bit hard to write about responsible for teaching a creative characterized by violence and and talk about... whatever fathers this book without giving its writing class. The summer disappointment, but also love and and sons talked about. The smoke surprises away, and the surprises preceding the class he took a eternal hope. Upon his father’s had made him a bit queasy, but it are what keeps the narrative going. creative writing class himself and death, Zack, a grown man now with had been worth it.” Zack, always believing that he was was asked, “What do you write?” children of his own and a fulfilling But Zack’s new, intimate a failure in his father’s eyes, learns Up to that point, he hadn’t written job as a teacher, goes home for his relationship with his father isn’t otherwise through talking to the much beyond letters and notes on dad’s funeral and journeys through to be. old man’s friends, as well as his class work. “They said, can you childhood memories. But all is not “Henry’s voice dropped an mother. He learns that his father think of a piano teacher who did what it seems. The man he knew, octave, becoming intimate and was far more like himself than he not play the piano every day?” and the man others knew, does not sinister. ‘Now I want you to smoke could have dreamed. So Mr. Kendall set out to write, appear to be the same. this whole can of tobacco tonight. Contacted by phone, Mr. Kendall and to write what interested him. This is very much a Northeast And you know I mean it, mister. said his parents were the studies for That turned out to be a novel, his Kingdom story. Troubled father- Don’t you try to cheat, because I’ll his work on the Dictionary of first book, The Secret Keepers, son relationships are generic — be watchin’ you,’ he threatened. American Regional English, and the published in 1998. they can happen anywhere. But in ‘You won’t need to do any other models for this book, which is largely Yes, he said, he misses the this case we’re talking redneck and work tonight. And as soon as autobiographical. He grew up on Northeast Kingdom. One of his tradition, about a father’s you’re done, you’re getting’ a good Hill Street in Newport with a sons still lives in Newport, and he disappointment in a son who is not big dose of castor oil. So that’s mother who was French Canadian; tries to get back here from time to inclined to kill a deer, stinks at what you’re doing’. Get started.’ English was her second language. time, but he also loves Arizona. football, and doesn’t “man up” “That was the first and last Her family moved to Vermont when “The Northeast Kingdom is when he has to have an infected toe time Zack smoked a pipe.” she was four, and she didn’t start very much in my thoughts all the cut off and walks with a limp. Zack’s father is also obsessed school until she was ten, he said, so time.” Henry, Zack’s father, runs a with the notion that his son is not his she only learned Northeast Kingdom The book is available online hard school. son, but has been fathered by one of English. She used the word “spider” through Amazon, and it’s worth a As a freshman, Zack decides his friends. His long-suffering wife is to refer to a frying plan, for instance. read. IN THIS WEEKLY SECTION, YOU’LL FIND: BIRTHS l WEDDINGS/ENGAGEMENTS l OBITUARIES l KINGDOM CALENDAR l CLASSIFIED ADS l RESTAURANTS & ENTERTAINMENT l REAL ESTATE & AUCTIONS l YOURS FROM THE PERIMETER l RUMINATIONS l AND MORE! Page 2B the Chronicle, August 31, 2016 Ruminations Green beans: no strings attached by Joseph Gresser “Give me a string bean, I’m a hungry man,” A shotgun fired and away I ran. — Bob Dylan, “Talkin’ World War III Blues” For anyone who thinks the world is going to hell and nothing has improved since the 1950s, I have two words — string beans. Back in the day, the string in green beans was a real thing that had to be removed before cooking and eating beans. They made preparing beans a chore akin to shelling peas. It was theoretically possible, but in practice impossible, to pick beans before the string developed. The string was a harsh fact of life. Today, as far as I can tell, it is a thing of the past, the kind of thing you tell your children about, like walking to and from school uphill both ways. One might think the replacement of string beans with green beans would be the occasion for celebrations. Parades and oratory on the town green would be appropriate. In fact, as far as I can remember, the change occurred without anyone taking notice. One day seed catalogs were filled with beans that promised to stand for a few days before the dread string These beans were picked moments after this photo was taken. A moment later and they would have been too developed. The next, they were filled with page tough to pickle. Photo by Joseph Gresser after page of tender, delectable haricots verts. Those are, in plain English, green beans, but I have a friend who used to plant pole beans Now make a vinaigrette dressing with cider varieties that were once known as French beans.

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