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BURLINGTON FREE PRESS REVIEW

NEW GREENE NOVEL ALL CONSUMING

11/05/2005
This review appeared in the October 30, 2005 print edition of the Burlington Free Press.

by Wayne F. Burke
Thomas Christopher Greene’s second published novel starts with a bang and moves swiftly through 20 years of the history of the Bender family of mythical Eden, Vermont (outside Montpelier). Not rightly called a "saga" — the book takes too many shortcuts to be labeled such (years slide by "like low-flying clouds," to quote Greene) — the work does squeeze stories from three generations into less than 300 pages.
The plot is simple, but the work itself, with its multitude of biblical allusions and overlapping themes, is quite involved.
Difficult and demanding Charles Bender, the paterfamilias — originally from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and transplanted to Vermont from New York City — owns popular Charlotte’s Restaurant, situated somewhere along the Dog River. One rainy morning, Charles walks into the woods and never returns, leaving behind two sons, a wife, and a will bequeathing restaurant and family home to eldest son, Charlie; $10,000 to younger son, Owen; and remaining money to wife, Charlotte.
Owen Bender, 17, leaves Eden and his girlfriend, Claire Apple, behind, and joins the merchant Marine. Charlotte returns to New York City to live.
Eighteen-year-old Charlie assumes ownership of Charlotte’s and, devoting himself exclusively to the business, manages to uphold the tradition of fine cuisine that has made the place successful. In Charlie’s seventh year of ownership he realizes he needs help and advertises for a chef. Claire Apple, recently returned to Eden after college and a stint working as chef in France, responds. Developing romance in the workplace soon boils over into marriage, and, a year afterward, a son, named Jonah, is born to the newlyweds.
Meanwhile, every six months or so, Charlie receives a postcard from Owen, busy circumnavigating the globe. None of the cards has a return address, thus Owen remains unaware, until his return to Eden after 17 years, of the nuptials of Charlie and ex-girlfriend, Claire (whom Owen never bothered to contact after leaving).
Owen’s return sets the stage for a repeat of the classic story of competing brothers, the story of Cain and Abel. Greene’s story, however, diverges considerably from the tale told by the unknown author of the Book of Genesis.
Charlie, as the one chosen by the father, a substitute God, is analogous to Abel, while Owen, cut out of the father’s will, is analogous figure to Cain, driven from "the face of the earth" to wander the "land of Fugitiveness east of Eden" (Genesis, 4:16). Symbolically named Claire Apple becomes a source of contention between the brothers, each tasting in turn the forbidden fruit Claire personifies — the taste admitting each to knowledge, of life, love, and a sense of self.
The prodigal Owen’s consummation with Claire (following his return), of what never really ended, strikes the reader as inevitable. What the reader isn’t prepared for is the surprising twist to this modernized version of the biblical story, a twist that is a tear-jerker — but in no way melodramatic — also fierce and conclusive as a punch to the stomach. Unlike Cain, Owen does, indeed, become his brother’s keeper.
The naming of the son, "Jonah," is passed off by the parents as a sort of joke, but like the names of other characters, is obviously symbolic. Less obvious is the meaning of the symbolism. At 16, Jonah decides he too will enter the family business, a decision ensuring his being swallowed — metaphorically, like his biblical namesake — as the two succeeding generations of Benders were consumed by the interests of the business. Consuming and being consumed — the act of ingestion — is a principal motif, which implies that all of us are consumed, in some sense, by the past — the familial inheritance. Owen, following his return, observes that the life of his father and the restaurant had been "swallowed" by Charlie and Claire.
Presaging Charlie’s and Owen’s destinies is a comment made by their father — when the boys are young — that a prehistoric fish in a pond nearby would eat them if they went into the water. The prevalence in the novel of descriptions of food and its preparation and consumption (descriptions that read like cookbook extracts), serve the motif as another feature, like the past, both consumed and consuming (as the restaurant consumes Charlie and, previously, his father). A sub-plot of the novel is Owen’s desire not to be swallowed like both Jonah and Charlie — that is, to escape the past.
Allegorical content aside, the novel is lyrically evocative of the Vermont landscape and realities of seasonal weather conditions, including unheralded mud and stick seasons. Fidelity to place was a trait of Greene’s first novel — also set in Eden, Vt. — "Mirror Lake" (2003). The first novel was well-received critically, but "I’ll Never Be Long Gone" (a lousy title for a good, a wonderful novel) is the more powerful and satisfying work, the characterizations attaining greater verisimilitude.
Though the novel’s symbolism is, at times, heavy-handed — Charlie takes Claire to visit a spawning pool for trout previous to Jonah’s conception; Claire dreams of waves crashing against a reef after she and Charlie first become chummy; and Owen, stressed by indecision, watches trees bend under the strain of a "great breeze" — the symbolism adds depth to the work — a depth of which, I suspect, this review but scratches the surface.
Like the trees mentioned above, Owen, too, bends (he is, after all, a Bender), foregoing his plans, in the novel’s ultimate scene, after coming to recognize, because of love for his brother and Claire, that he "owes" both — a recognition, or notion, that determines the novel’s outcome.
Deftly executed and with characters driven by passion but restrained by their humanity, "I’ll Never Be Long Gone" is moving, unfaltering, and altogether familiar yet as enchanting as a fairy tale.
Critic-fiction writer Wayne F. Burke lives in Montpelier. He is the author of "Kingdom Come: The Fiction of Howard Frank Mosher" (Publish America, 2005).