Customer Reviews

Rookery Blues

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

ROOKERY BLUES revolves around the experiences of the Icejam Quintet during the `60s at Rookery State College: Leland Edwards on piano, Neil Novotny on clarinet, Victor Dash on drums, Connor on bass, and Peggy Benoit, saxophonist and singer. The musicians are professors and instructors at the college. Each of them has a story line. The beautiful Peggy Benoit is taken with alcoholic Connor. She's kind of a groupie, being more enamored of Connor's reputation as an artist than the man. I found Neil Novotny, who plays clarinet, the most interesting character, because he gives Hassler an opportunity to satirize beginning novelists (and I imagine what he remembers about the experience himself). My favorite Hassler book is STAGGERFORD in which Hassler satirizes the political and personal machinations that occur in a high school setting. As a twenty-year teacher, I found those more interesting than the story line.
I also had fun trying to pick out any similarities to the two colleges Hassler taught at: Brainerd Community College and St. John's (just outside St. Cloud, Minnesota). There's an ice fishing scene which seems to point at the little lake right next to St. John's. The other character I found intriguing was Victor Dash, the faculty union representative. Most of the teachers involved find labor negotiations beneath themselves; Dash revels in the matter, would like nothing better than to strike.
Hassler is a Dickensesque writer, totally immersing us in this academic setting. Major characters and minor characters are given the same careful attention to detail. You can't lose with ROOKERY BLUES.

When most books feature disposable or interchangeable characters, it is a wonderful treat to read a book with people you can care about. To read fiction is to enter someone else's world and Hassler unerringly recreates such a vision in his wintery academic community. Without violence or bloodshed, he is able to create a gripping story of ordinary people in the grip of life's passion and circumstances. A great book.

This is the eighth Hassler book I have read, and while it is different from some of his others, there is so much funny in the book my wife told me to go to another room to read since I was helplessly laughing aloud so very often. There is nothing theological about this book, and in fact nothing judgmental (I thought there could have been at least some indication of non-approval of the adultery), but nevertheless one can't help but be caught up in the zany story. Jon Hassler kind of suggests to me a male Anne Tyler.

I again enjoyed the charactors in Hassler's books. As stated in an earlier review the plots are not riveting, but Hassler's books are not about plots, they are about the charactors. I have enjoyed every book I have read by Hassler and look forward to reading the few I have not yet read. I also grew up in northern Minnesota and can identify with the area, customs, etc. of that part of the world.

John Hassler has created a collection of interesting characters and writes about them with kindness and affection. In fact, what struck me about this pleasant novel was the gentleness of Hassler's style. He provides his insights into this odd assortment of small town Minnesota teachers with deft humor. In the process he generates real affection for these characters in the reader. A relaxing read for those who want a break from serial murderers, slasher books, etc. Hassler deals with real people.

I would guess that "Rookery Blues" is one of the best pieces of writing of Jon Hassler's. Hassler is one of few authors who are able to write an interesting story about people's lifes without the need of an over-exaggerated plot.

His characters are marvellously developed such that the reader takes great interest in what happens to them (they are every-day people). Well-written. Funny.

Oh, to be in Bemidji or anyplace north of the Continental Divide (the one in Minnesota). This book is especially enjoyable for those who have spent their formative years growing up in the frozen environs depicted in Hassler's novels. Of course, the suits in Administration might be offended by Hassler's satire, but for most of us this book is loaded with great humor - watching the humanities chair pursue a garbage truck to recover a revealing photo or learning how to calm down a lustful golden retreiver. Even better, we learn how not to improve a student's taste in poetry! After spending the summer grading college entrance essays, this book provided me some real comic relief.

At the heart of this novel is an amateur musical quintet, consisting of 5 college professors at a small, underfunded Minnesota state college. All the characters, and there are quite a few, are well drawn and interesting, often fun, but they are who they are, the reader does not develop any special insight (the mama's boy is the one exception). For my taste, the novelist is a bit too pathetic; conversely the music teacher is an extremely enjoyable person - everyone finds her so, including the reader. Hassler excels in describing the joy of making music, and does a very effective job with art, in the one scene which takes place at an art exhibition.

The novel would have benefited from better editing: occasionally, Hassler tries too hard to make the novel entertaining, which is surprising since he does not shy away from such themes as drunkenness, hard ball college politics, a marriage which is ruinous for both parties; at the same time, the dumping of the drunken professor outside his house in the bitter cold is simply not credible.

I find myself at a loss here. I bought and plodded through this book until the last syllable of recorded inanity (on page 484) due to the warm reviews it received here on Amazon by top reviewers. It seems we have been reading different books. I did not find this book engaging. I did not find the characters true-to-life, much less fascinating. Above all, I didn't find anything at all "funny" in this book, the adjective that seems to be the common denominator among aforesaid reviewers. The plot and characterisations are pasteboard. The so-called "humour" in almost every instance is something straight out of The Three Stooges. Truth be known, it is all pasteboard and slapstick with a Disney/Hollywood ending to wrap things cheerily up.

It's truly difficult to write a review of a book in which there is absolutely nothing of substance to cover. The sole purpose of this review, then, is to warn readers away from all this silliness. A test for the prospective reader: Do you find Norman Rockwell's paintings "exquisite"? Do you find Readers Digest' articles intellectually stimulating? If so, this book is for you, for it ends up parodying itself. I think perhaps Hassler began with the intention of wreaking satirical havoc among these hayseed collegians, but found that he was too much like them, that he actually LIKED them. The light he throws on the characters leaves no shadows. I might like them or his book as well if it did, but going beyond the surface into psychological depths is simply not Hassler's métier.

Summing up, the book is more reportage from Hassler's own life than anything else. The prose is so wooden I think the only word for it is anti-poetic. ----So Rockwell enthusiasts, slapstick gourmands, here is your book! -----Lovers of literature, cast your eyes elsewhere.

I have not read a Jon Hassler novel that I didn't enjoy. This
novel is about college professors n a small Minnesota town.
They get together to play music, talk about politics, work on
their dreams and fall in love.

Though sometimes trite and formulaic, Hassler's characters are
good and decent people who possess a sense of strong core values
rarely encountered in modern novels.