One Vacant Chair (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "PERHAPS OUR LIVES ARE SUSTAINED by a suspense of dying..." (more)
Key Phrases: Brother Roberts, Fort Worth, Sister Roberts (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Once again, Coomer (The Loop; Sailing in a Spoonful of Water; etc.) presents a wonderfully eccentric cast of characters and delivers a philosophical punch in a comic and poignant novel about life, death and family ties. He plays with oft-used narrative conventions a funeral that leads to a rebirth, a painter who teaches the art of seeing, a physical journey that leads to spiritual growth which, in the hands of a lesser writer, might have resulted in a mishmash of feel-good nonsense. But Coomer makes it work. "[L]ike separate drops of condensating water pooling in the bottom of a cold spoon," a scattered family reconvenes in Fort Worth for the funeral of its crotchety matriarch. Narrator Sarah, an overweight designer of Christmas ornaments trying to cope with her husband's infidelity, decides to remain there after the funeral with her Aunt Edna a school cafeteria worker, amateur philosopher and a skilled painter of portraits of chairs. Aunt Edna becomes Sarah's guru, advising her on matters of health, love and art as the two women plan to take Grandma Hutton's ashes to Scotland, in keeping with her surprising will. Everything that follows Aunt Edna's marriage, her death and her posthumous emergence as a major artist is as inevitable and unexpected as any lover of classic story structure could hope for. And still, the story feels real. Even James (Aunt Edna's boyfriend, a blind black chair repairman) is a fully rounded, believable character who, with his alternative ways of "seeing," only occasionally teeters on the edge of symbolism. Coomer's tight focus on the mundane reveals the magical underbelly of everyday life.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In his fifth novel, Coomer (Apologizing to Dogs, 1999) displays his unique comic voice while returning to his favorite theme of personal regeneration. Sarah has come home to Fort Worth, Texas, to bury her grandmother, who took to her deathbed some 22 years earlier, plagued by a series of mysterious illnesses and waited on hand and foot by her daughter, Edna. Sarah, a designer of Christmas ornaments, and Edna, a painter of enigmatic portraits of chairs, decide to go together to Scotland to fulfill the dead woman's request to have her ashes scattered there. Among the secrets revealed during the long, hot summer are Edna's love for a blind, black neighbor who repairs chairs and whose colorful turns of phrase would give Dan Rather pause and Edna's longtime habit of pilfering silver coins from the school cafeteria where she works, a habit that will pay for their trip and then some. This novel's wide sentimental streak is offset by a peppery humor delivered by a most endearing cast of characters. A wonderful read. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Graywolf Press; First Edition. 1 in number line edition (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 155597385X
• ISBN-13: 978-1555973858
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #573,667 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny and wise, September 29, 2003

By	Lynn Harnett (Marathon, FL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

An insightful writer with a dry, humorous edge, Coomer divides his time and his book settings between Texas and Maine. His latest novel is firmly rooted in his Texas homeland, with a brief, powerful excursion to Scotland.

The book opens with an antic, visual scene, which introduces all of the characters, quickly drawn in bold, precise strokes. The Huttons have gathered for a memorial service for the family's crotchety matriarch. The setting is a sun-blasted field, filled with chairs all carried from a house filled with little else in the way of furniture. And when all the chairs are brought to the field, "the house was empty of chairs, and yet still full of them." Aunt Edna, an unmarried school-cafeteria worker who cared for her dying mother for 20 years in that house, is an artist who paints only chairs, an eccentricity no one questions. "Aunt Edna liked to draw and paint chairs in the same way that my father liked to read books about the Civil War, or Aunt Margaret liked to play charades."

The narrator, looking back on that summer, is her niece, Sarah, whose marriage is reeling from the blow of her husband's infidelity. "We were two fat women, eighteen years apart, a chair artist and a designer of Christmas ornaments, who only knew we had troubles and a hot summer to get through." Sarah writes her story with the benefit of hindsight, so we know from the first that Aunt Edna has died and her paintings now hang in museums. How these events come about are two mysteries in a story full of revelations, small and large, about life, love and hard choices.

Gathering for the reading of the matriarch's will, the Hutton family is shocked to hear that the old lady wanted her ashes scattered in Scotland, a place she had no ties to and had only seen in a large picture book. Texans, if the Huttons are any example, can't see why anyone would want to travel more than a state or two away anyhow. But Aunt Edna is adamant and Sarah, her life in limbo, decides to stay with her aunt and accompany her to Scotland.

Their sojourn together, in the house and on the trip, is one of new beginnings - Sarah revives her art career from the doldrums of successful ornament design, and Aunt Edna accepts a marriage proposal from an old friend, a blind, black, chair repairer. Scotland gives both women a jolt. Its gray stone, heavy sky, and magnificent age are the antithesis of Texas. It seems a place at once alien and enfolding and apart from ordinary life. As they travel, doling out spoonfuls of Grandma and Grandpa's ashes in castle gardens, Aunt Edna's physical decline becomes obvious. Her pithy, impatient advice to her niece - mostly in the form of admonishment - takes on new urgency and a greater aura of wisdom.

Coomer's exploration of the mistakes and lessons of life, the crisp, often humorous debates on love, forgiveness and family, are saved from the dangers of preachiness or cliché by the quality of his writing and by the hindsight structure of the narrative. It's natural that Sarah, after all is said and done, gives greater weight to her dead aunt's wisdom. And Coomer's characters have complexities rather than quirks. Their talk arises from the weight of their hearts. As in previous novels, Coomer explores circumstances of personal epiphany occurring in the course of ordinary life, and makes the reader feel the better for the journey.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Coomer's books always moving, November 9, 2003

By A Customer

From The Loop, to Apologizing To Dogs, to Beachcombing For A Shipwrecked God, and now One Vacant Chair, I always finde Joe Coomer's books engaging, witty, moving and lyrical. It's the writing that makes them so, a voice at once sophisticated and personal. His latest effort concerns a woman, Aunt Edna, who, beyond a career as an elementary school cafeteria worker, paints portraits of chairs. The story is narrated by her niece, who accompanies her on a trip from Fort Worth, Texas to Scotland, where they spread Aunt Edna's mother's ashes. This is a story of two women which takes on the classic storyline of mentor and student, but by the time the novel is finished these roles fall apart, become anything but typical. Any author who can make me laugh and cry within the space of one page makes me want to pass on the good word.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read, January 6, 2004

By	Leslie Van Wagner (Nashua, New Hampshire USA) - See all my reviews

This book works on so many different levels. It's a great read that's hard to put down once you start. It has wonderfully fleshed out characters who come to life on the page. The themes are compelling, and Coomer handles them with a strong sense of humor and sensitivity. The discussion of art technique adds another interesting dimension. All in all, I loved this book!