Finding a remarkably good book is joyful.
It’s akin to reaching into your pocket and pulling out a twenty you thought you dropped in the supermarket parking lot some time ago. The added value you sense is a real bonus.
That’s the way I felt when I read Alligator Alley by local author and politico Rick Robinson.
Robinson usually writes political thrillers, a step or two below John Grisham but noteworthy and in the same vein.
To say I was skeptical about his attempt at a ‘coming of age book’ would be like saying Ashley Judd loves UK basketball or Rick Pitino has won national championships with two great Kentucky universities. Of course, she does. Of course, he has. Of course, I was.
Here’s the gist of a reasonably familiar storyline:
James Conrad, a native of a Northern Kentucky River town (read Ludlow) has turned fifty. He’s in a bad second marriage, he’s childless, he’s drifting, and he’s lonely. He and his wife decide to go to Florida to rekindle their fire for each other. However, she cancels at the last minute because, like Rodney Dangerfield, she gives Conrad no respect. Her reason: she’s a driven business woman. Conrad’s inference: she’s having an affair.
Caught in the middle
Conrad is a man caught in the middle, a man who has done the obvious and played the safe bet all his life. He’s a man lost in the Facebook-Twitter-Phone-App nonsense that inundates us all. He has turned away from boyhood dreams to pursue the fame and fortune expected of him by his depression-era and greatest-generation parents. Why? Simply put, it was his predestined future from the time he was a lad walking the back alleys of his home town, chasing girls, and sorting through life.
Steeped in the morass of mid-life, he knows he needs to change his pace, to find his way, but how?
On his flight to Florida, and then throughout the book, he begins a series of self-reflective examinations that lead him through his past and into his future.
I am pleased to say here’s where Robinson’s character and his story begin a numinous transformation.
Robinson’s reflections about his life (which I interpreted as autobiographical) are marvelous. The magical moments he knew as a boy chumming with his Great Uncle Gator, a man he admires beyond belief, are poignant, as are his remembrances of days long since passed in a Kentucky river-town. These reflections are superb as his character: Uncle Gator! Gator fishes, hunts, plays music, and does carpentry work, and he treats everyone with a refreshing directness that is rarely seen anymore. In his prime, Uncle Gator split his time between Florida and Northern Kentucky. In the twilight of his life, he lived in Florida amongst the Seminole. Young Jimmy Conrad realizes instinctively that his Uncle Gator knows quite a bit about life and about treating people well. Conrad’s young years are devoted to wanting to be like his great uncle, wanting to play the chords on an old Gibson just like his uncle taught him.
Sadly, as with too many of us, Jimmy Conrad, the boy, loses his way as James Conrad, the man. Fortunately, the path is still there and it sparkles like jewels in his reflections about life, love, laughter, business, romance, in playing guitar and mandolin, and in the fun parts about growing up. Robinson remembers and writes about these moments with grand appeal.
Another career for Rick?
I don’t know if Rick Robinson knows this (I hope he does), but he has a whole other career waiting if he chooses to write about the human condition, about all the magical moments in life that make us who we are. In this area, his talent shines.
Here’s a sample:
“My failings were based upon what I believed others thought of me rather than what I thought of myself. I lost sight of what was truly valuable in life. Just as my despair was invisible to all but me, it was also being caused by me. The war for my personal tranquility had been taking place in the small space between my ears.
“I was worried about everyone’s expectations of me, except my own. The problem was I no longer knew what I expected of myself. Was I successful for all I had accomplished? Or was I a failure for never having had the guts to become the person I dreamed of as a kid?”
This is the stuff of giants. As a novelist, I can tell you he is writing with passion about something he knows well.
If you are looking for a good read by a successful local author, consider Alligator Alley by Rick Robinson. All of his stories can be found on popular book websites. As David Bell, author of The Hiding Place, has written, Alligator Alley “is a bittersweet, nostalgic, mystical, and at times quite funny look at the choices we make and the limits that squeeze us as we reach middle age.”
P.S. The characters, the scenes, and the package are the real deal, too. I won’t tell you how the book ends but he visits the Seminole Reservation where his Uncle Gator lived. There he learns that so many of his uncle’s good traits were derived from the days he spent with the Seminole. Frankly, the end is telling.
Treat yourself to Alligator Alley and just maybe you’ll reach into your pocket and find that twenty you thought you lost. It’s fun to find a nugget of gold now and then.
Donald Then, a novelist and experienced editor and journalist, is NKyTribune’s literary editor. He will review books written by local authors or those with a Northern Kentucky setting. Reach him at author@djamesthen.com Visit his web site at
www.djamesthen.com
What Don says about getting your books reviewed:
The Tribune Bookstand
Again, Northern Kentucky has its own daily newspaper. What a wonderful and long-over-due headline!
We should all stand up and applaud this magnificent effort designed to focus on the people, the schools, the businesses, the lifestyles, and the issues that make Northern Kentucky tremendously vibrant and appealing.
The launch of a fresh news outlet is truly an exciting event because there are so many stories that must be told, so many ways to build common unity and civic discourse.
For my part, I will review novels written by Northern Kentucky authors, or novels that use Northern Kentucky as their backdrop. I promise nothing more and commit to nothing less because, to paraphrase Ernest Hemingway, no friend is as loyal as a good book.
If you are a published author whose creative work fits the simple foregoing description, or if you represent one, please let me know. Your work deserves the spotlight,