Tinkers by Paul Harding 9 out of 10

 Tinkers by Paul Harding

9 out of 10

This book might work as a litmus test, in the sense that most people would notice the marvelous aspects, after all, it has won The Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 2010 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulitzer_Prize_for_Fiction - while others, such as this reader, while aware of the strong points, might still fail to absorb the bliss available beyond the depressing fact that the main character lies dying in a hospital bed, placed though in his own house, and once in a while we are reminded that he has this amount of time before his departure, then another, diminished interval – which is evidently interesting, creative, probably original – that serves to make the atmosphere gloomy around here…

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven...” ― John Milton, Paradise Lost…therefore it is so often the reader that creates a rather dark, negative background for an acclaimed novel like Tinkers, or rather filters it, making it reflect his or her inner feelings, stae of mind, arguments with spouse – so mine is responsible for this and oh, so many other…come to think of it all the other bad things that happen…though we learn from Games People Play, a psychology classic by phenomenal Eric Berne, that we tend to select our partners on the criteria that they would prevent us from doing what we actually had had no intention of doing and then blaming it on them in the very popular If It Weren’t For You game.

We know from the start that the protagonist of the tory, George Washington Crosby, will die and not just that, but he will be gone in a very short time, hence the hospital bed that had been placed in a room, which he imagines that is somehow sinking into the lower level of the house…we have some very poignant, rewarding, wonderful, some would even say more than that incursions into the past…in fact, just like the undersigned – now there’s even more reason for this failed reader to have exulted when reading this Pulitzer Prize winner, but he just missed it – the hero records into a cassette player – that was before the arrival of the smart phones, though just decades ago –the story of his life, which he ends up throwing into the fire, after he will have listened to his voice and getting quite infuriated with it and the result of his recording

Born in 1915, the main character has some amusing, often emotional passages to recall…’lamenting the loss of this world of light and hope’ then mentioning the days passed as a travelling salesman, when one product was a soap that would be replaced by the manufacturing company, causing some hilarious, exhilarating dialogues with the clients…one of the women – they were probably all women as a matter of fact, in that age when men were still, now that is all completely changed, is it not, sexist, misogynist and bent on keeping their wives at home, doing all the work there, the washing and everything else, before the emancipation of the present…

Thus, one dialogue between the protagonist and one or most of the clients seemed to be going something like this, but mind you, there are no quotes here, just what this reader remembers of it…

“This is the new, better soap

What was wrong with the old?

Nothing, this is just better

But what about the old one…that was very good…I was very happy with it

Well, this one has been improved…it washes better and quicker

So there was something wrong with the old one…

No…

Hem…give me the soap then…

You have to pay a penny more for this (which would have been a perceptible difference, although not a doubling of the price)

First, I want the old soap, which was perfect for me and that is not possible and now I have to pay more for this one…’

Then there is another fragment that is mirthful when we learn that ‘Jesus the greatest businessman ever, the greatest salesman and advertiser…He was the founder of modern business, the most popular dinner guest J in Jerusalem…he picked up twelve men from the bottom ranks of business and forged them into an organization that Conquered the World…’ now that is quite an extraordinary assessment

Howard did other things too to gain some extra money…kill a rabid dog, deliver a baby, cut a man’s hair – this he did before the wedding of this client, placing a round vessel on top of his head and then cutting around it - sold moonshine and at one time, he went into the water and picked the dead body of a child that had died, after she had fallen, cracked her head near the river and then she was taken away by the flow to a small island in the water…

Another task he would complete has to do with Gilbert the Hermit, a peculiar character that lived in the wild, in the middle of the woods, where the travelling salesman would meet him after long intervals – was it once every year? – and they would not exchange a single word in years (!) after establishing in the first maybe there years what was that this very strange client wanted – he would give up on tobacco –they would not need to communicate anymore –a difficult, perhaps impossible task for the Hermit – and there is both humor and disgust attached to the figure that is accompanied by a cloud of flies and other insects…when he has with him the fur of a poor fox and the head attached, the cloud hesitates in selecting the putrefied remains of the animal or the living, clearly stinking body of the isolated human, who has at one point a bad, huge tooth that makes his head a sphere and the possessor a suffering big sore that asks the protagonist to take the tooth out…it would happen, but it would take a massive effort…

In short, there is much to enchant in – again – a Pulitzer Prize Winner, but this is not one of my favorites…