The Man Who Owned Vermont [Paperback]

Bret Lott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1999

When Rick Wheeler's wife walks out on him, he nearly drowns in despair. So the RC Cola salesman throws himself into work -- setting sales records, winning a promotion, burying himself in the lonely present while he scours the past for hope. Then at last on a cold Vermont morning, a hunter and his prey show him unexpectedly, haltingly, the way back to love and faith.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Snaring the reader in the very first sentence with the narrator's distinctive, totally credible voice, Lott has written a gripping novel about ordinary people that rings true with an uncommon resonance. After his wife, Paige, miscarries their first baby, Rick Wheeler blames himself for the disaster and stops talking to her. He carves out for himself, away from her, an increasingly separate domain, of which the emblem is Vermont (he claims it "for myself," because Paige has never been there). Paige leaves him, and now he's doubly bereft. For a time he finds solace by throwing himself into his job as a soda pop salesman with Northampton, Mass., as his base. But it isn't enough. In the end, Rick learns a crucial lesson from a deer-hunting plumber named Lonny and begins to put his life back together. One of the best things about this affecting first novel is its strong regional pungency. Lott's bits of country are the parts of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont threaded together by Interstate Highway 91 and the Merritt Parkway, a territory not often explored in serious fiction.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

The New York Times Book Review Subtle...powerful...with a profound understanding of the precarious condition called marriage.

James Atlas A powerful and poignant tale...About work and marriage and the ways we betray -- and redeem -- ourselves....Impressive.

The New York Times The Man Who Owned Vermont is a moving first novel....Bret Lott knows how ordinary people work and love...how intractable human feelings can be...and he shows us, as well, the redemptive powers of love.

Publishers Weekly Snares the reader in the very first sentence...a gripping novel that rings true with uncommon resonance....affecting.

Columbus Dispatch Fully realized and memorable....Anyone who picks up this book will be moved.

Los Angeles Times Engrossing...one of the most interesting stories of the sadness of American men.

Time Recommended Fiction A vivid example of mind and spirit grappling with oppressive fates.

Phillip Lopate author of The Rug Merchant Beautifully written, quietly thrilling, exemplary in its compassion...a stunning debut.

Barry Hannah author of Airships and Hey Jack! Bret Lott is a superb writer. The Man Who Owned Vermont has a deep and truthful message.

Josephine Humphreys author of Dreams of Sleep and Rich In Love An extraordinary book...full of surprises. Bret Lott is a talent to be reckoned with.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Washington Square Press; Original edition (January 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671038206
• ISBN-13: 978-0671038205
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #492,019 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bret Lott is the author of thirteen books, most recently the novel Dead Low Tide(Random House 2008); other books include the story collection The Difference Between Women and Men, the nonfiction book Before We Get Started: A Practical Memoir of the Writer's Life, and the bestselling novels Jewel, an Oprah Book Club pick, and A Song I Knew by Heart. His work has appeared in, among other places, The Yale Review, The New York Times, The Georgia Review and in dozens of anthologies. Born in Los Angeles, he received his BA in English from Cal State Long Beach in 1981, and his MFA in fiction from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 1984, where he studied under James Baldwin. From 1986 to 2004 he was writer-in-residence and professor of English at The College of Charleston, leaving to take the position of editor and director of the journal The Southern Review at Louisiana State University. Three years later, in the fall of 2007, he returned to The College of Charleston and the job he most loves: teaching. His honors include having been named Fulbright Senior American Scholar and writer-in-residence to Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv, Israel; having spoken on Flannery O'Connor at The White House; and being appointed a member of the National Council on the Arts. He and his wife, Melanie, and live in Hanahan, South Carolina.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The power of words among everyday people, January 12, 2001

By 

Robert H. Nunnally Jr. "gurdonark" (Allen, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Man Who Owned Vermont (Paperback)

Novels so frequently chronicle the lives of the writer, the artist, or the high powered mover and shaker. "Ordinary people" tend to be cariciatures, people the author moved away from to get an MFA or people whose limitations define the author's hidden text in would-be hilarious fashion. One imagines the potential inherent in the as-yet-unexplored life of middle class small town and suburban folks, freed of treacle, of outdated stereotype, of "realistically" implausible dialogue, or fractured postcard home truths by writers who feel themselves somehow above the fray of tract homes and work-a-day jobs.

The Man Who Owned Vermont stands out for its characterizations of a 20something man whose job is distributing RC Cola to markets. He's recently separated, and the plot is driven by the dilemmae of his marital problems. The dialogue, the characterizations, and the situations are plausible, workable, and real as life.

Although an overt theme seems to be unfashionable these days, Mr. Lott adopts as one theme of this work the power of language and words. The protagonist, though intelligent and reasonably articulate, is, for reasons explained in the story, nearly incapable of any real insight into his own feelings or needs. Lott effectively uses the "supporting characters" as semaphore signals to the reader and to our narrator of what is really going on in his life. Unlike the similar device in Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier, we do not come to mistrust the narrative voice of the clueless narrator. Lott's protagonist is anything but clueless, and, thank heaven, he does not babble or mutter on about obscure lit references like a grad seminar short story hero. Through patient story-telling, we come to understand that the narrator's emotional disconnection, and its very real effects on his very real life, *is* not only the character, but also the "real" story. The result is neither played for pathos or humor, but instead the work achieves a quiet, almost meditative, small reflection on the nature of language and story. The book is subtle, is well worked, and capably written.

Surprisingly, the part of the work that satisfies least is the way in which the denouemont is tied together after two disparate sequential events create a sort of twin climax. The ending seems slightly forced, but the overall effect of the work is that it is believable, very real, and about not only ideas, but also people.

If you like small films which use a realistic plot to tell a subtle story, like You Can Count on Me or The Winslow Boy, you'll be apt to like this small book which uses a decent but distracted man to make some interesting points.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous characters you'll get to meet, July 26, 2001

By 

Nanci "Book Dragon" (Tri-Cities, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Man Who Owned Vermont (Paperback)

Bret Lott stands out as a storyteller because he writes about people who could be your next door neighbors enduring things that could actually happen to you or someone you know. And his characters handle things just as awkwardly as you & I would as well. But they are like the characters of Anne Tyler and Elizabeth Berg--not easily forgotten. I love an author who really brings his characters into a full three dimension life. Oh, and don't forget your kleenex when you read this.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful read, but I didn't like the ending too much., August 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Man Who Owned Vermont (Paperback)

I was immediately drawn into this story and identified with the main character. Wonderfully written. Rick was overcome with grief and guilt over losing his unborn child and we learned his thinking, and felt his emotions,as he coped. But I ask you, Mr. Lott, did he have to get in bed naked with another woman and very nearly make love to her in order figure out that he still loved his wife? How do you think this made the other woman, who was a fine person, feel? I would think Rick would be even more guilt-ridden because, at the end of the book, he lists the things he will now talk with his wife about, and this other woman isn't on the list! Great writing but I'm not so sure about the ending.