"It wasn't the room, though. He'd feel more at home now in any room, anywhere... as long as that typewriter was with him."
 |
Breakers by Chris O'Grady Pen Press
book review by S.C.
As Dickens gives us fog in the opening pages of Bleak House, so Chris O'Grady gives us wind. Lots and lots of wind. It pushes against Bill Ryder as he delivers a package to the residence of Lady Arabella Brandon, messenger by day and struggling would-be writer by night—fitting, perhaps, for the state of Bill's life. Because Bill doesn't write. He thinks about writing. He thinks maybe he wants to try his hand at it, but he's afraid. This is a novel about art—but it's also a novel about the bloody process of commerce. Bill is at the most magical time in all of it, prior to beginning. He can daydream all he wants, but he doesn't. He takes steps toward it. The rest of the cast of characters show the various stages of the process of bringing work forth from an idea to the stage of sale and beyond.
This work—completely different from O'Grady's The Glorieta Pass—feels luxurious, almost indulgent for someone capable of writing fast-paced pulp fiction reminiscent of the 1940s. But perhaps it's not all that different. The characters reside in roughly the same time period (apparently Bill can make a living as a messenger in New York City and still have a bit of savings—something that would be impossible today). Not only is their lingo and slang reminiscent of times past, but they're in an era when the novel was important, when it wasn't battling with cable television and video games and Sudoku. In their time, the novel was king. Despite the wide cast of characters, we also end with Bill Ryder. We touch base with him throughout the story, which chronicles in detail his journey—and ends at the best place it can for him: the beginning.