MADreads

Listening to late night WOOP in Midvale

May 21st, 2009 Katharine - Sequoya

The setting of a novel can often make or break your reading experience.  For some people this is why they enjoy reading so much, it takes them away to a different city, country or even universe.  But reading about your own literal backyard may make you smile with recognition or cringe with the thought of a writer analyzing your mannerisms for a later journal entry.

Local author Dwight Allen’s newest novel The Typewriter Satyr takes place in fictional Midvale, WI and his main character Oliver works at a typewriter repair store and has drinks at the Melody Bar after softball games.  Oliver’s life is thrown into chaos when young Annelise (local radio station WOOP deejay) drops a typewriter (found by the trash) in for repair.  Fifty something Oliver becomes infatuated with thirty something Annelise and contemplates leaving his wife and four sons for this midlife love affair.

The deliberate description of Oliver’s quiet existence and life in Midvale made the story slow paced, but it fit the style of the story, which was poetic and philosophical.  My favorite character was a homeless gentleman named Wade that kept popping up in Oliver and Annelise’s life as they began their relationship.  Oliver’s story could best be described by a single paragraph in the book on page 84.

“And then Oliver–who was perhaps more scared of death and old age than he should have been, who was perhaps more susceptible to other women than his record of fidelity would indicate, who had had for some time an unarticulated need to be in love again before the earth swallowed him and made powder of his bones–fell in love with a young woman who brought  a typewriter into his shop for repair.”

This book made me reflect on what I like about reading and why I like certain books.  For me it comes down to identifying with characters, and unfortunately, I personally couldn’t identify with either Oliver or Annelise.  Their “do everything for love attitude” seemed romantic, but unpractical and often hurtful to those around them.  And as a long time Madisonian, I found the setting distracting - I know people that drink and work at the “Melody Bar.”  Don’t get me wrong, Allen is a good writer and has won high praise from editors and his colleagues.  A recent 77 Square interview gives some insight into Allen’s career and impetus for writing this love story.  Reading about Midvale and an aging man’s cling to love just wasn’t for me right now, but I would be interested to hear what others think about the book.  Comments?

Entry Filed under: Literary Fiction