Book Review 2018-004
Title 13 by Michael A. Ferro
2018 by Harvard Square Editions, 369 pages
(I received a review copy of the book and am embarrassed to say that I don't remember if it came from the publisher or the author--it's not signed, but I still think Michael sent me the copy--and kind of remember thinking--man, he didn't sign it).
There must be three or four unpublished novels in drawers and closets in Michael A. Ferro's house because Title 13 does not at all feel like a debut. Ferro has the confidence to bring forth a plot point--that in the Chicago Regional Census Center, a document known as Title 13 has been found to be missing 37 pages of highly confidential material and the person responsible must be found, as do the pages--and allow it to slide into the background through the course of the novel. It's not a move I'd expect of a writer early in his/her career as it projects a certain type of confidence in one's ability to maintain their reader's interest without following through on the initial exciting story line.
Likewise, I'm not going to spend a ton of time on that plot. It does allow Ferro to play with some things structurally though; there are a couple of in-the-office interviews with superiors pushing the workers for information and what might know about the missing pages, or their co-workers. But his willingness to allow it to slide along the back wall of what the reader is watching has me wishing to look at that front matter a bit more.
The story that Ferro concentrates on is that of his protagonist, Heald Brown, and it's not always a pretty one. While that back story involves government intrigue and the early 21st century recession and an intrusive government, our initial exposure to Heald and his co-workers, especially Janice Torres, who Heald has eyes for, and Milosz Pavlenko, a former Ukranian who does a similar job to Heald and Janice and eats lunch daily with them, starts off rather quietly. Near the end of a work day, discussing Title 13, and their jobs. They all head off toward home.
The reader, however, is allowed a peek into the fact that Heald is more than a little bit of a drinker pretty quickly. We also learn that Heald is a lonely individual, and seemingly by choice to at least some degree. His only real interactions are those at work, which he's somewhat forced into, and a weekly drinking/movie watching session with Alice, a neighbor that lives above him who also has at least the beginning of her own drinking problem. He's also one helluva smart ass. Part of that seems to be a mechanism to help push people away, but part also seems very natural to Heald. He's dark, but doesn't seem to be going dark in his conversations for effect.
Ferro slides in facts about Heald's personality, his thoughts, in a smooth manner. It never feels like he's forcing in some big explanation, but allowing his story to naturally develop. Unlike how Heald feels daily--not much of anything beyond vodka feels right or natural to Heald. Numerous things made him anxious; normal daily events. Taking his coat to a dry cleaner, slipping his rent check (slightly overdue) under his landlord's door, and this anxiousness led to Heald isolating himself away from others. And while the focus is on Heald, Ferro let's the reader see just how disjointed many of Heald's generation are--while Janice, Heald and Milo spend every day with each other at work, and lunch together regularly, an after-work visit to a local watering hole shows just how little they know about each other outside of work.
Heald is becoming more aware of just how his drinking is a problem, noticing his hands shaking, and later noticing pain below his ribcage, as well as the beginning to think about alcohol as soon as he wakes up. He's constantly thinking about how to keep that information to himself. He comes to the realization that he's a big enough drinker though to actually worry about what Alice, a heavy drinker herself, will think about him during their movie nights, so he schemes on how to sneak back to his own apartment for a bit of drink that she won't see him partake in.
The personal side of the story line takes full control of the novel when Heald gets word that his grandmother, a woman he was extremely close with growing up, is dying. He heads back from Chicago to the Detroit area where he grew up and his family (grandmother, father, mother, sister and her fiance) reside still. There's very little talk of Title 13 or his co-workers while Heald is in Michigan. There's focus on his relationship with his grandmother, and his family's not-so-subtle (yet, still too subtle for Heald to not recognize) attempts at nudging Heald into talking about his alcoholism. When talking along with his grandmother and hearing just how comfortable she is with his forthcoming death, Heald actually thinks about wanting to open up, but he can't convince himself to do so. The whole section, that of Heald visiting his family, is a very emotional read. They perfectly capture his family's dynamic, especially that between he and his parents--the dad more willing to skirt the issue, while Heald's mother is all but crying out for him to help himself and it is the scenes with her that are most heartrending.
The novel does come full circle though and back to the Title 13 story as Heald heads back to Chicago and has a one-on-one talk with Janice---this is after she's started to see Milo. She's direct and asks Heald about his drinking, something his family so wanted to do but couldn't. This is followed by Heald having a one-on-one interview with his department's ultimate superior, which leads to his being let go. Not so full circle however that we find out exactly what happened to those 37 pages, but we don't care. The book has two more very important scenes after Heald is let go and they honestly were a surprise--much like the conclusion of a well-done mystery can be a surprise. Only this time it wasn't the mystery we thought we were looking for the answer to.
Michael A. Ferro writes some funny dialogue. Dark as hell, but funny. He boldly took this novel in a direction I was not expecting at all and nailed it. If his look at our society and how even though we have more access to each other than ever before, we are generally at least a little more isolated from each other, in this his debut shows off his understanding of human nature and the situations we find ourselves in, I definitely look forward to future, "more mature" efforts from him.
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