Monument
Patrick Blennerhassett
Reviewed by Barb Radmore
This book has me conflicted. The main point I want to make is that
Patrick Blennerhassett is an excellent writer. His ability to put words
together to form a vivid picture, evoke momentary emotion and tell a
story is exceptional. He has the ear for language, not over done,
stylized prose but true language. His story is raw. It could not be
told in other words, in another voice . That is the strength of this
debut
novel.
Seth is a hockey player. So much of his sense of self is wrapped
up in that role, it is what gets him up in the morning, keeps him
going. The rest of his time is spent in a blur of pills, alcohol
and violence. Day light hours just mean a hangover, time for another
beer. Even hockey games are buffered by booze, time out means a beer,
time between tournament games is filled by drinking. The violence
careens from his up bringing to bars to the hockey rink. It is an
endless spiral from childhood to the present. Seth is caught in the
spiral, in the eye of the hurricane; it seems like all is normal (for
him) while all around him the tempest is brewing. It takes one person
to make a decision, a life changing one for him without even consulting
him, which brings this helix to an end. It is an uphill battle for, if
not redemption, survival.
It was a tough book to stick with. The endless circle of drinking and
violence got old. It may have felt real and true but that does not make
it any more fun to read by the hour. The characters are not ones the
reader wants to spend time with- again they may be honest but that does
not make them fascinating. Seth is not a sympathetic protagonist, but
then I am not sure he is meant to be. I had the urge to challenge the
author to recreating the book as a short story and then possible
creating the book. As I said in the beginning it is not a story that
could be told in other words but maybe less of them.
But just as I think I am going to close the book I come across lines
like this one used to describe the feeling of kicking a pill habit:
"You are a bunch of scribbles on an Etch-a-Sketch, a Ralph Steadman
portrait scrawled to the sound of a racy Blood Brothers song. Cold
breath on the inside of a car windshield and shivers running across the
surface
of your spine."
I will be the first in line for the Blennerhassett's next book. It will
be interesting to see the future of this new author.
Letter to author:
Dear Patrick,
I never read web sites, reviews or interviews until after I finish a
review. I just did catch up on the links from your publisher's page. I
can not resist a few more comments now. You talk a lot in your
interviews about the pain of rejection, the multiple times your work
was turned down. But yet you say you only wrote this for your friends.
You could have just self published this, given copies to your friends
and called it over. The lengths you went to get this published make me
think maybe it was more than just a story you wanted to show to those
it involved. And now you say you do not think you will be writing
another. Hey, dude- you can write. You have talent. As soon as the
trauma of this first process passes you really need to get back to the
writing. If this book is semi based on reality you defiantly have a lot
more to say, a lot more tales and emotion that could be used for story
telling.
I do not think you are done yet- and I sure hope not!
Take care,
Barb
PS My daughter and her friends are coming to Canada for Winter
Carnival. Your friends will not be there, will they? I will tell the
girls that if they meet any hockey players to run like hell in the
opposite direction!