The Occasional Reader

Summer's here. And, judging by the conversations I overheard at the recent Annual Meeting regarding Medicare, Obamacare, family-care, and staff-care, all of you need a vacation–preferably a long one far away from the Internet or Smartphone coverage. The summer edition of the Occasional Reader traditionally suggests reading material with stories good enough to hold attention during long evenings at a rustic cabin or while camping with the lions on the Serengeti. Of course, you don't need me to suggest that you pack Suzanne Collins' successful "Hunger Games" trilogy. You can hardly get through an airport without tripping over a display of those popular paperbacks and frankly, you could do worse, much worse. However, as usual, I will suggest some books, old and new, that remain, "off the beaten path."

First is one of my all time favorite reads. David James Duncan is, in my estimation, one of the most skilled living writers. Many of you may have read or heard of his long novel about family and baseball, The Brothers K. Although I liked The Brothers K, I thought his earlier book, The River Why, was a masterpiece. Written in 1983, the book is, on the surface, simply a fishing story. Frankly, I am not an angler so initially I approached this read with more than a little skepticism. Duncan is a hilarious writer who quickly converted me. While the author has much to say about fishing and rivers and conservation, his "laugh till you cry" insights into families and people are powerful without resorting to sentimentality. I teach this novel in courses pitched to college students and adults and it habitually gets the highest reader approval. (And they are a tough crowd.)

The second suggestion is a more recent novel that has not gotten much press. David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas is fascinating read with an unusual structure. Be forewarned, this is not a novel with a standard Nora Roberts plot line. In the first half of the novel Mitchell tells six stories separated in time from the 1850's to the present. Although the stories are somewhat related, the interrelationship becomes clearer when in the second half of the novel the stories are followed up in reverse order. Complicated? Mitchell's prose style is so strong that each of the chapters could stand alone as a strong short story. Although I like some of the stories far more than others, this book came as a surprise to me–a delightful non-traditional surprise.

I, as I would suppose many of you did, read Willa Cather's O Pioneers in junior high or early high school. This early 20th century author often gets labeled as a "younger person's author" or is simply forgotten in the shadow of her contemporaries Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Katherine Mansfield. I recently re-read her novel, Death Comes for the Archbishop, following a medical mission trip to Central America. The story concerns the first Bishop of Santa Fe. However, in addition to a wonderful introduction to the New Mexico of 1850–a time when the Spanish territory came into American jurisdiction–Cather explores the clashes of culture. I found her insights current and thoughtful. As I discovered while serving the indigenous people in Guatemala, even coming into another culture with the best of intentions is fraught with difficulties. Cather's book is a delightful read and a reminder that good writing does not go out of style.

Finally, I will make a strange suggestion: this summer, try some poetry. I am not a poet but have come to appreciate a growing number of new writers who are committed to writing poetry that is not the distant, obtuse stuff of my freshman college English class or the province of so-called experts. This is not to say that these new poets write poetry that is trivial or superficial–just the opposite is the case. However, I find that when I slow down, read and ponder, these are words that cut to the heart.

We live in world so crammed with communication that in a numbed state of Google search I forget that facts are not meaning and efficiency rarely presages happiness. These days it is the spare and well crafted word that attracts my attention, a word deftly describing a thing's essence. And it is by such poetic word choice that I am brought up short, and the spell of my well-intentioned tedium is broken. As the poet Elizabeth Bishop says, these are words, "cold deep dark and absolutely clear" which echo throughout my day and are remembered. Take one of the poetry volumes listed below and "waste a few hours" reading by a quiet lake or in the sun dappled woods. Take a deep breath and dwell for time in these poet's keen observations of people and places and issues of their heart. These are not bullet point lectures and you won't know any more about coding or dengue when you are done. Often the poet takes you on a meandering walk seeing what others ignore, wondering where others conclude-trust me, slow down and see the images between the words and you will be challenged and refreshed. Vacations are meant to refresh by slowing down so that the picture can be re-focused. Poetry forces you to slow down and use different ways to see things, different ways to think. Try it, you might like it.

I list some of my favorite poets whose work seems most accessible to first time explorers, in no particular order:

Jeannie Murray Walker: A Deed to the Light or Night Tracks
Mary Oliver: Why I Wake Early
Susanna Childress: Entering the House of Awe
Dana Goia: Pity The Beautiful
Scott Cairns: Philokalia
Anne Doe Overstreet: Delicate Machinery Suspended
Daniel Bowman: A Plum Tree in Leatherstocking Country

Have a great summer and keep reading.

David P. Clark, MD