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Trutor and the Balloonist

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Every so often, a literary critic publishes an article decrying the decline of fiction writing and the preference given to convoluted prose, weighty with cleverness and self-importance, over clarity of style and truly inspired storylines. Yet, much as I agree with the writers of these articles, I can't shake the feeling that they are solitary voices in the wilderness. Why else, I wonder, should it be that an author whose short story collection "The Earth and the Sky" has been described as "an elegant debut" by none other than the New York Times Book review, and "lucid" by Publishers Weekly, is not yet a household name?

Published the same year as the aforementioned short story collection, "Trutor and the Balloonist" is Debbie Lee Wesselmann's first novel; a captivating tale of art, relationships and long-buried secrets set in a small New Hampshire town. Part literary fiction in the best sense, part murderless mystery, it tells the story of Michelle Trutor, originally from Boston but currently staying with the Wharton family in Derbysville, NH, and the various members of that family. Notable among the latter are especially the twins Proctor and Arthur (nicknamed "the Balloonist" by Trutor because of his outlandish reading glasses); and Caroline Wharton, as Arthur explains to Michelle their adoptive sister, who raised them in her parents' stead after they were found abandoned on the Whartons' doorsteps. Although Caroline has been dead for a full 16 years, she still holds an almost unholy ban over the twins and their niece Roberta, who shares a forced tenancy of their home with them; due in equal parts to the devilish terms of Caroline's will and to the power she wielded over them when she was alive. To break that spell, Arthur Wharton now asks Trutor to write Caroline's biography; a task he feels neither legally nor psychologically up to performing on his own. Trutor, recently escaped from an abusive relationship, eventually accepts as a way to keep herself occupied and refocus her life. Soon she finds herself in the middle of a stack of Caroline's notebooks, tracing the life of a woman who kept most of her affairs a secret even to those closest to her, and following clues left in her diaries, in riddles, in a mysterious map drawn by Caroline, and in masterpieces of art from various centuries.

"Trutor and the Balloonist" combines a contemporary writer's exquisite storytelling with psychological insight and old-fashioned mysteries in the style of Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers (for the riddles, think of Christie's "Partners in Crime: The Clergyman's Daughter"). The novel's most fascinating character is without doubt Caroline Wharton, a complex, highly intelligent woman with an artist's understanding of beauty but also of sheer incomprehensible ruthlessness; capable of great sensitivity but beset by the idea that nobody is remembered for their good deeds, only for their cruelty. As Caroline's secrets are peeled away layer by layer, the reader also finds out more about the rest of the Wharton family, a rather eccentric clan at first sight but emphatically drawn, three-dimensional characters all of them, who only gain in personal dimension as the story progresses. And while Michelle Trutor learns to confront her personal ghosts, the story explores violence and abuse: not in its headline-grabbing, garish forms but that of its daily occurrences in many a family.

Vivid, lyrical and on occasion subtly humorous, Ms. Wesselmann's prose is of an appealing simplicity; no word is wasted, not a single image gratuitous. She instantly places the reader into her story's location; and the colorful beauty of New England's Indian Summer, the heavy whiteness of its snow-laden winter, the vast expanse of its woods and mountains, and the serenity of its stately Victorian houses and historic towns combine to provide a rich background to a story that seems unimaginable in any other place - with the possible exception of Christie's and Sayers's Britain; although Michelle Trutor is very much a woman of our age, even if some of the novel's other characters could have been created by one of the great British queens of crime. This is a novelist I'm glad to finally have discovered; and I am very much looking forward to reading more of her work very soon.
___________________________________________

My first is the last one you ever want to see
Once you've got rid of them, finally free.
My second holds information to all life on earth:
Your eyes, nose and hair, a plant's gentle mirth.
My third is the time of the soul's purification,
Of sack cloth and ashes, and self-deprivation.
My whole's what I think of this writer's creation:
Her first novel? Pah! Would she were known throughout the nation!


Also recommended:
Captivity
The Earth and the Sky: Stories
Partners in Crime (Tommy and Tuppence)
Gaudy Night (Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery)
Emma (Penguin Classics)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass (Penguin Classics)
The Accidental Tourist: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
The Turn of the Screw: And Other Stories (Vintage Classics)

Both amusing and rewarding, Wesselmann's book poses two mysteries to the initially baffled reader: What secrets did Caroline Wharton hide from her family when she committed suicide and tied up her estate in a puzzling will? And, more generally, what is it about New Hampshire that inspires authors to populate their fiction with comically eccentric and emotionally challenged misfits?

Fleeing from an abusive relationship, Michelle Trutor visits the small town of Derbysville to seek refuge in the childhood home of her friend Arthur Wharton, whom she fondly calls "The Balloonist." Arthur enlists Michelle in cracking both the mystery of Caroline's death and the bizarre limitations of her last will and testament. Michelle soon realizes that the secrets of Caroline's life have been encoded in her art collection, in messages left with friends scattered throughout New England, and in pages of riddles discovered in her bedroom--a place declared off-limits to her intimidated family members by to the perplexing terms of their inheritance. Michelle is joined (or thwarted) on her escapade by Arthur's twin brother Proctor, their suspicious niece and housekeeper Roberta, the timid town historian Sissy (also the victim of an abusive husband), and the skulking, greedy estate executor Willowby.

So what is it about small towns in New Hampshire, anyway? The residents and visitors of Derbysville recall in surprising ways the parochial oddballs who inhabit Ernest Hebert's fictional town of Darby. Any resemblance between the two authors, however, ends with the idiosyncrasies of their characters. While Hebert evokes the realism of John Updike and Richard Russo, Wesselmann channels Roald Dahl and especially Lewis Carroll (to whom there are frequent allusions). Yet Wesselmann's novel steadfastly eschews phantasmagoria; just when you think Michelle Trutor is about to go down the rabbit hole, the adventure is reigned in by the solid gound of realism (or at least what passes for realism in New Hampshire).

The inscrutability of New Hampshire may never be deciphered, but, fortunately for readers, the unveiling of the secrets shrouding Caroline Wharton's life and death is both exceptionally entertaining and (best of all) immensely satisfying. Comparisons to other authors aside, the suspense and comedy of "Trutor and the Balloonist" inhabit a twisted universe quite unlike anywhere else found in modern fiction.

Michelle Trutor (mostly called Trutor in the book) is rather at loose ends after leaving her abusive boyfriend, and accepts a vague job offer from aging attorney Arthur Wharton (whom she refers to as The Balloonist). Arthur and his twin brother Proctor live in the house where their adoptive sister Caroline raised them and then died, under strange circumstances, several years before. Trutor's assignment is to explore the mystery of Caroline, and to write her biography.

Sounds simple enough but, as Trutor discovers, Caroline was a complex and difficult woman, who has shrouded herself in layers of mystery, a room full of journals, complex victorian riddles, paintings, and a coded map that symbolizes her life.

Trutor quickly becomes immersed in this strange quest, and in Caroline's world, and as she does she also becomes part of the Whartons and their dysfunctional family. What happens? What does she learn about Caroline? What does she learn about herself? You will just have to read it and see!

Trutor is an exquisitely crafted book. The writing is lucid and poetic, the characters engaging and complex, the New England ambience is convincing, and the underlying message is powerful: Love has the power to redeem. This is not a totally easy book to read. It takes concentration, and you will probably take the time, as I did, to solve some of the riddles, which will cause you to put down the book and think. There are many characters in the book, and you will have to do some checking back to remind yourself who they are and how they relate to the story. Still, it moves along and is well worth the effort. I recommend this one highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber

Many, many years ago, a journalism professor told me, "There are no boring stories, only boring writers." How axiomatic! And Debbie Lee Wesselmann, a talented and gifted writer, takes what in my opinion is a superficially interesting story and makes it eminently readable and enjoyable.

TRUTOR & THE BALLOONIST tells the story of an "odd couple" in every sense of the word: Michelle Trutor, a young researcher who has left her abusive boyfriend behind, and her curious friendship with Arthur Wharton (known affectionately to Trutor as "the Balloonist"), an aging attorney from a most eccentric New England family. The Balloonist enlists the aid of Trutor to unravel the complex secrets and riddles of his late sister Caroline, who has handcuffed her surviving heirs with a bizarre will, guarded by a pit bull of an attorney. Trutor proves to be a most effective sleuth; in fact, her uncanny ability to decipher riddles, connect the dots, and put the proverbial pieces of the puzzle together very gently flirts with suspension of disbelief. Suffice it to say that Caroline Wharton was a complex, perhaps cruel, individual, and when the story is finally resolved the reader will raise his/her eyebrows.

Ms. Wesselmann has a supreme knack for detail; her descriptions of nature, of the quaint New England town where the Whartons reside, are dazzling, almost magical. The pacing of this book is wonderful, flawless. TRUTOR & THE BALLOONIST is from an author who is hitting her stride--an author to be reckoned with.

Arthur "the Balloonist" Wharton is a friend indeed. He has rescued young Michelle Trutor from her abusive boyfriend, and brought her to his New Hampshire home (believed by some to be haunted) to unravel a mystery. He wants her to write a book about his much older and long-dead sister, Caroline, who raised him and his twin brother, but was a cold and cruel stranger to them. Caroline left a series of riddles, a strange map, and a journal as clues to her secret life and her real identity, which take Trutor from Boston to London and back again in a shocking conclusion.

This unusual story will keep you guessing, and will give you some scares and laughs along the way. The author has created unique and vibrant characters: Trutor is strong, intelligent, and brave, Arthur is sweet and vulnerable, his brother Proctor is wildly eccentric, niece Roberta is hard as nails, on the surface at least, houseguest Sissy is struggling with an abusive husband, and Caroline's character reaches out from the grave to frighten and fascinate.

The picturesque countryside of New England is described in such enchanting terms you will want to see it for yourself. You will enjoy trying to figure out the riddles and clues to Caroline's double and even triple life, but even more, you will enjoy the deep bond of friendship between Trutor and the Balloonist.

It may be impossible to pigeonhole this book. Part mystery, part romance, part art history, part social ill investigation, part New England travelogue - and none of those categories really says what this book is.

Michelle Trutor is engaged by her friend Arthur Wharton (the `balloonist') to help decipher the life of his adoptive sister Caroline, at least partly as a gesture to give Michelle a safe place to stay away from her abusive boyfriend. But what starts as a task that she can bury herself in to hide from her problems quickly becomes near-totally absorbing, as she finds all the members of the Wharton family to be at least mildly eccentric, and whose life-style has been sharply warped be the terms of Caroline's will. Caroline herself is slowly revealed via journal entries, interviews with former acquaintances, and most especially by the artworks and Victorian-styled riddles she has left behind.

This is where this book shines, as each character is beautifully limned by Wesselman's pen, and all the characters become interesting as persons you would like to know. Caroline's journal entries have a completely different feel and style from Trutor's ruminations, but both are highly appropriate for their characters; Arthur and his twin brother Proctor are diametric opposites who nevertheless display a bone-deep similarity; Sissy, the town librarian saved from her own troubles with an abusive husband by Trutor, develops from a non-descript mouse to an independent lady. All are believable people, even if they are not just like your next-door neighbor - and that is a good part of the charm and value of this book.

The action develops logically, with proper `clues' laid before the revelations about Caroline and her life. Those clues in the form of riddles will also stretch your mind if you try to solve them by yourself, as the answers are far from obvious, but very important to the final resolution of book. The powerful theme of just what damage abusive people can wreak and how to deal with such people is developed as both an overt theme in the persons of Trutor's boyfriend and Sissy's husband, and a more buried thread in the visage of Caroline's effects on those around her both during her life and after her death.

The book can be read quickly (though trying to solve those riddles may slow you down a lot!) and never seems to develop any dry patches. The descriptions of the New England area are almost lyrical and very accurate (I've been to most of the places described in this book). Perhaps the only thing stopping this from being a great book is that it is too short to develop the full depth of all the characters (I would have loved to learn more about what makes Proctor tick). As it is, and regardless of what category of fiction you might think this falls into, this is very entertaining book, with lovely people, a mind-stretcher, and with something significant to say about a problem that is all too endemic within our society.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

The power of friendship is stronger than the power of an abusive relationship. This is the theme of Debbie Lee Wesselmann's "Trutor and the Balloonist". Michelle Trutor comes to stay with her friend Arthur Wharton, a.k.a. "The Balloonist", promising to help him unravel the mystery of his late sister Caroline. The enigmatic Caroline Wharton's abusive presence can still be felt by all the occupants of her aging mansion, Arthur, his twin brother Proctor, and their niece Roberta, as much as Trutor still feels the abusive presence of her former lover, Ted. Through the strength and support of their friendship, Trutor and the Balloonist conquer their fears, solve the wonderfully complex Victorian riddles and the lovely painted forgeries Caroline left behind and form a new alliance based on truth and knowledge. A fascinating and original story that combines elements of a traditional mystery with a modern day story of what truly forms a loving relationship. An all around good read!

My first is Caroline, an enigma, a brain
A map maker, a forger, holds much in disdain

My second is Trutor, young Michelle, the star
Who Caroline's riddles and legacy jar

The Balloonist is third, one half of a twin
Caroline's will is a challenge, his game is to win

The fourth is the brother, Proctor by name,
An inventor, a loner, but is he to blame?

Roberta, Roberta, the fifth on my list
Plain, dowdy and dour, yet there is a twist

Harold the vulture, alert on his perch
Keeping watch on the money, and Trutor's research

Sissy comes seventh, a shy timid mouse
Takes on a new attitude, safe in C's house

Of paintings, of riddles, of scandal, of shame
Of hatred, of power, and all in C's name

My whole is a tale that is beautifully told
Where men are the weaklings when women are bold

A book so unusual, compelling and fun
It'll make you wonder why she wrote just the one*

The strangest puzzle you'll find here is this
Why wasn't this book on the bestseller list?


Amanda Richards, October 19, 2004


* Note: The author has also written "The Earth and the Sky: Stories", a collection of 15 short stories. The reference is a hint to the author for a follow up novel.

Escaping from an abusive relationship, Michelle Trutor accepts an invitation to stay with a former classmate, Arthur Wharton. Wharton, (nicknamed the Balloonist thanks to some bizarre reading glasses he keeps on top of his head) asks Trutor to stay in his family's New Hampshire home and write a biography of his late sister, Caroline. Caroline, who committed suicide--rather brutally--16 years earlier remains an enigma to her surviving relatives. According to the dictates of Caroline's will, Arthur Wharton, his twin brother, Proctor, and Caroline's sour niece, Roberta, must remain in the house for 265 days out of a year. If they fail to meet this (and other conditions), the will is to be declared null and void by its vulture-like executor, Harold Willowby. So Caroline's survivors find themselves locked into a life they would not have chosen for themselves. Caroline controls them as much in death as she did in life.

Trutor arrives with just a duffel bag and a backpack, and this is all that remains of her past life. She has nothing & no one, and so she rapidly becomes immersed in the life at the Wharton mansion. The late Caroline Wharton was not an easy person to know, and many leading questions remain regarding her life. How, for example, did Caroline manage to amass a fortune? Why did Caroline guard her privacy so fiercely? Was Caroline really responsible for the suicide of local artist, Peter Habbit--as some rumours claim? In order to find the answers to these questions, Trutor must solve the mystery of Caroline's life. Through reading Caroline's hidden journals, solving clues left in a series of cryptic riddles, and by interviewing those who knew Caroline best, Trutor uncovers an amazing story.

Part mystery, part Bildungsroman, but all intriguingly readable, I devoured this novel in two days. When I read a synopsis of the novel, I saw shades of Byatt's "Possession" and that did not bode well for me, as I disliked "Possession" for its excessive romantic strain. In contrast, I found myself pleasantly surprised by "Trutor and the Balloonist". The descriptions of the house--a huge Victorian--were simply marvelous, and I found myself drawn into the story by the eccentric Wharton family. The house--especially the Terra Incognita Room--has a definite Poe-Dragonwyck-esque appeal that immediately intrigued me. While the novel flirts with a feel-good ending, author Wesselmann successfully skates away from sentimentality and instead creates a novel whose characters gain strength and courage to face the secrets of the past and to shape an uncertain--but promising--future--displacedhuman

I'm a huge fan of books, and there are so many good writers publishing novels these days. However, Debbie Wesselmann belongs to a more exclusive group. She's not just good; she's artful and inspired. TRUTOR & THE BALLOONIST is a finely executed story that combines literary grace with a terrific plot.
Recommended.