This one's a bit better than the one posted yesterday, the review that is, though still should be ashamed of the word classic in the header:
This review was originally emailed to EWN’ers on February 2nd, 2001.
Tenorman by David Huddle
121 pages by Chronicle Books in 1995
Chronicle Books actually had the gall to publish a hardcover novella and charge just under $13 for the single story. Completing a novella has to leave a writer feeling both the satisfaction of completion along with the disappointment towards the potential audience size. If you write novellas in volume, perhaps you can bundle three at a time for publishing purposes, a la Jim Harrison. Or perhaps you can write some short stories about a similar topic or individual and package them as a collection (as Huddle did earlier this year with the incredible Not: A Trio.). Otherwise, typically you have to hope a literary journal will take a chance on this 'long story.'
Tenorman, the
novella, is typical Huddle in that it is written with skill, subtlety,
and
passion. The topics are familiar -
self-introspection, love, relationships, and purpose in the world. Huddle has a skill level and sureness to his
writing that allows him to put things in print that others would not try.
Tenorman is the story
of Eddie Carnes, tenor saxophone player, and the Government program that has
taken over direction of his life. Eddie,
at age 59, is brought back from
Once clean, Eddie is set up in a studio, half of which is a
full scale apartment. The project buys
him the saxophone he wants, one played by Stan Getz a few times and owned by a
collector in
The novella mixes his fictional life with some other fictional musicians, as well as modern jazz greats. He produces more great music, and is wise well beyond his 8th grade dropout educational level. The relationships include those between Carnes and his standard musicians; between Carnes and Project Director Henry McKernan; between Henry and his wife Marianne; and that of Eddie Carnes and Thelma Watkins, the school teaching cousin of one of his musicians.
It is during the telling of two stories between Eddie and Thelma at a dinner that the intertwining of the lives of all involved occurs. This conversation is taped by the project. Henry and Marianne listen to the tapes together and come to realizations about their own marriage and lives. The conversation is a fascinating one and where I believe Huddle leaves other writers behind. Eddie's story goes back to the sixth grade and a period of time of sexual enlightenment. It involved boys and girls rolling down a hill together and the excitement and need to continue. He had never been able to find a relationship to compete with that short lived one. Thelma also went back to childhood and the possibility of her mother cheating on her father. She had never been able to fully trust love and relationships.
The story of Eddie prior to this conversation is very well done and the writing of music, a difficult task, is done with apparent ease by Huddle. The conversation, how the two react and continue their evening, and how it affect the McKernans, is incredibly well done.
Chronicle Books has the gall to publish a hardcover novella and charge just under $13 for this one, single story. With the talent level of the writing, and the story being told, Huddle didn't leave them much choice.
5 stars
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