Novella Month - EWN Classic Review - Tenorman by David Huddle

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 2^nd, 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 Sweden to Maryland by the Carnes Project.  The NEA has funded this project, which will clean Eddie up from his drinking, and put him up in a comfortable living arrangement, recording and videotaping his every move and sound. He signs his rights away with both a shaky hand and a great flourish.

 

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 Sweden.  He has played this sax two times earlier in his life and knew it was the one for his future.

 

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