Why "Hearts in Atlantis" matters.

It didn't take me a long time to make my first book selection for this blog. In fact, it took me no time at all. I have already recommended this book to about twenty people, all of whom have either politely declined, or take the book but never make it past the first page. But this is a book that should never be set aside; this is a book that needs to be read. Hearts in Atlantis takes you on a journey through time, and is one of those rare books that compels you, that causes your heart to race and makes you unable to set it down. You fall in love with the characters, memorize the dialogue, and cry when it's over. In fact, the first time I finished this 672 page masterpiece, I immediately started it over again. Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever read a book so amazing, so inspiring, so full of truth that you turned back to first page after you had finished the last because you weren't ready for it to be over? Because if you haven't, then you are not reading the right books. This is one of those right books. It is an amazing book. And it's by a very well-known author, an author who has written so many novels that he has at least two shelves in the Barnes and Noble Fiction section. You have heard of him, you may have even read one or two of his books or seen the movie versions. But trust me when I say that this book is nothing like his others. It carries his style and shows his excellent writing ability, but the content and the profoundness of what is said within it has no equal in any of his other works (at least compared to the 10 or so novels of his that I have also read). And for that reason, I am not revealing the author's name until the end of this post. Because after reading my summary and knowing what this book is all about the answer will shock you, disarm you, and maybe make you look at this writer in a different light. And, hopefully, it'll make you want to read this book. Because this books matters. Let me tell you why.

The premise of Hearts in Atlantis is simple: it's about the Vietnam War. But the story itself and the way that the book is set up are not so simple and that's one of the reasons why I love it. And one of the reasons why this book is such an interesting read. Because this was not a simple war, it was a war that split the nation, a war that had reasons, but was never actually declared. Never in the history of America was a war so protested, so not wanted by the blossoming generation of teens and young adults. It took place in a time of change and unrest and because of that, the author needed more than one person's prospective and a hearty back-story to make the tale complete. This way, the reader could understand the true impact of what happened over the course of a decade and how Vietnam affected every life it touched. The book has five sections from four people's perspectives and, as I tell you about each section, please know that I don't seek to give anything away. I just want to give you enough so that you can see the depth of this book, and understand the potential impact it could have on you if you are willing to read past the first page.

1. (1960) Low Men in Yellow Coats
Bobby Garfield is a 10-year-old boy who lives in Harwich, Connecticut with his mother and the first two things that you learn about him are that his father is dead and that all he wants for his 11th birthday is a red and silver Schwin bicycle. Bobby's best friends are John Sullivan (a.k.a. Sully-John, like the boxer) and Carol Gerber and all three are living in that sweet time of life when childhood is almost over, but the stresses of adulthood have not yet hit. When Bobby's birthday arrives his mother hands him a package much too small to hold the prized bike but instead contains a library card, an adult library card. Bobby isn't as thrilled as I was when I got my first library card, but don't blame him for that, he's only 11. That same day Bobby meets an older man moving into the upstairs room of the the building in which Bobby and his mother live. Little does he know, as he walks away from their now shared stoop, that this man will change his life forever. Ted Brautigan becomes Bobby's teacher, the first male mentor he's had since he was three. Ted gives him Lord of the Flies and Bobby devourers it. Ted also gives Bobby a job and on the surface, it just looks like Bobby is being paid to read the newspaper to man whose eyes have seen better days (I can never resist a pun). But that is not the whole truth. Ted is paying Bobby to keep an eye out for "low men in yellow coats", shady characters who want to get their greasy hands on Ted and who communicate in mysterious ways. Bobby understands that his new friend is being hunted, but by who? For a while, he doesn't give the situation much thought. Summer has come and Bobby wants to spend it with his best friends. During those few short weeks Bobby gets his first kiss, plays baseball with his friends and does his best to avoid bullies from St. Gabriel's Secondary School. But Bobby has bigger problems when he starts to see signs that the "low men" have come for Ted. It is this moment when Bobby makes the first (and worst) adult decision of his life: he doesn't tell Ted. You can guess the disastrous consequences of this action, both for Ted and Bobby, but what you may not be able to guess is who these men in yellow coats really are. Gangsters? Aliens? Government agents? Figments of an old man and troubled boy's imaginations? Even by the end of this section we don't really know. What we do know is that Bobby, Carol and Sully are never the same and that that summer, the summer of 1960, was a turning point in each of their lives. It was the summer of experiences that ended up putting them on opposite sides of a war.

2. (1966) Hearts in Atlantis
The book's title comes from this second section and while Bobby's story sets up the rest of the novel, this part is my favorite and I understand why the author saw this section as title-worthy. Peter Riley arrives at the University of Maine for his freshman year in 1966 with a Barry Goldwater bumper sticker on his car (AuH20-4-USA) and a head full of Republican ideals. When he leaves in 1970, however, his hair is down to his shoulders and he sports a sticker on his backpack that states RICHARD NIXON IS A WAR CRIMINAL. College is always a time of change, right? Like the majority of college students in the late 1960s, Peter becomes passionate about the Anti-War movement but, unlike most college students, he also becomes passionate about Hearts. Hearts is a card game that Peter and his dorm mates in Chamberlain Three become obsessed with, playing it both for bragging rights and money. During this time the draft was in place and college males had to live by one rule, 2.5 to Stay Alive. This meant that if their grade point average fell below a 2.5 they lost all their scholarship money and would have to drop out of school. And that meant automatic entry into the military system and, eventually, going to war. The boys in Chamberlain Three waste their time and money on Hearts and the game claims more than a few of them for Uncle Sam's cause. And as Atlantis sinks around him, Peter starts failing his classes, draws his first peace sign, and falls in love with a girl named Carol. There is so much more to this section; an angry paraplegic, profane graffiti, boys becoming men and life lessons being learned. But to give away too much more would be an injustice to Peter and I just can't do that.

3. (1983) Blind Willie
Bill Shearman is a former St. Gabriel's student and Vietnam War veteran whose day centers around his wife, his work, and his commute from the suburbs into the big city. It is December and Christmas is quickly approaching, but Willie doesn't care. Although he appears to have a good job and a happy, stable life, deep sorrow and remorse lurk just beneath the surface and the man in the dark suit and blue tie is wracked with painful emotions. Willie served in the Vietnam War and is haunted by his experiences, but his deep regret comes from a time before the war, the summer of 1960. His actions during that summer haunt him and in this section we see the daily penance he has imposed on himself to make up for what he did to Carol. And upon his arrival to work on that fateful day, he transforms from Bill Shearman, successful business and family man, into Willie Shearman, a Catholic high school student who writes over and over again, I am heartily sorry. Once his writing is complete, Willie puts on his army fatigues and becomes Blind Willie Garfield, a homeless veteran who panhandles to support himself. This man is neither blind nor homeless,and makes his living by lying about who he is and what really happened to him in "the bush." He hears people's voices shaking as they donate their change and ask about his experiences, telling him that they too were there. And after a long day of standing on the sidewalk, Blind Willie becomes Bill Shearman again, joins his wife at a dinner party and enjoys a glass of eggnog as if all is right in the world. Because the importance of his portion of the story is not found in the destination, but in his daily journey, which is why you get to know the ending.

4. (1999) Why We're in Vietnam
"When someone dies, you think about the past." (576) This line opens up the fourth section, where we catch up with John Sullivan, formerly known as Sully-John of Harwich, Connecticut. At this point in his life, Sully-John is older, wiser and the owner of several car dealerships. He served in the Vietnam War with Bill Shearman and also survived to tell his tale. Well, he survived in the similar way Jake Barnes "survived" in Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, with his life, but not necessarily with his entire manhood. Sully is attending the funeral and wake of an old military buddy and through conversations, drunken rantings and a series of flashbacks, it is easy to see the legacy that the war left on those who survived it. Because Sully not only remembers the war, but is constantly reminded of it every day, both by the body parts he is missing and by old mamasan. Old mamasan is the ghost of woman whom Sully saw murdered in the bush, who followed him home from war and is now his constant companion. She sits next to him on the car ride home from the wake and Sully talks to her, hates her, misses her for the brief periods of time when she is gone. But she always comes back and he knows this. She never says a word, and Sully knows this too. His section ends in an unclear way, whether insanity or odd coincidences took hold of him we may never know. But what we do know is that the fifth section opens with Bobby Garfield returning to Harwich, Connecticut to pay his last respects to an old friend.

5. (1999) Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling
Bobby's return to Harwich brings on a flood of both happy childhood memories and the terrible heartache that followed the summer of 1960. Bobby grieves for Ted, for his lost childhood and for the friends who had once meant so much to him. Friends that the war took so much from. This section is special, it is the shortest of the five and is the closing scene of a masterful work of literature. The last few pages of this novel are filled with some of the most amazing words I have ever read, so I won't say anything more. Because why would I tell you to read a novel and then give away the ending?

That is my summary of the book that I've read more times than I can count, the book I have owned three copies of, the book I have recommended to many people, but still a book I alone have read. I have given you background and plot summary, and now I am giving you the point, why all this matters. Because these are not five stories joined only because the narrators grew up in the same part of town. These are five stories connected by a war, by change, even by a little magic and coincidence. And each of these five stories have something to teach you, some message that you may not see until the second, third, or tenth time that you read this book. Ted once says, "Good books don't give up all their secrets at once," a line that I think is actually describing the novel itself, a line that speaks the truth (49).

Bobby's last bit of childhood is spent with Ted, a man of unknown origin or motives, a man who gives him a book and changes his life. Ted becomes his teacher and his friend and uses literature to teach about truth, both to Bobby and the reader. His section shows a boy on the cusp of adulthood, and the fear, confusion, and responsibility that comes with that new stage of life. We watch as he learns to not trust all adults and that there are severe consequences to both his actions and inaction. And we cry with Bobby when Ted is gone. That is one of the reasons that this book matters, because it makes you feel for the characters in a way many other books fail to achieve. The same is true of Peter Riley's story, in which we watch his life fall prey to hearts, both the card game and the organ beating in his chest that yearns for Carol. While Bobby's story is about becoming a young adult, Peter's is about falling in love and learning to stand up for what you believe in. Both of these acts involve bravery, and both bring pleasure along with pain. In Peter's section, Carol becomes the teacher and her wisdom is undeniable. She says, "Maybe you love me and maybe you don't. I'd never try to talk anyone out of loving me, I can tell you that much, because there's never enough loving to go around" (434). Carol knows loss and pain, but she also knows love. And when there's a war going on and countries are being split apart, what else do you have but love? In a sense, that's what the core of the hippie movement was all about and I never would have realized that without Carol. She affected my Republican ideals too.

The stories of Willie and Sully-John are different from the coming-of-age dramas of Bobby and Peter, and give the reader a different perspective from the other side of the war. These men fought for their country, saw their comrades die screaming, and barely escaped from the bush with their lives. Different lessons can be learned from their sacrifice, lessons that a solely-anti-war novel would not have contained. During that time, some people called the peace sign "the track of the great American chicken" and that may be true in these two men's eyes. They went to war voluntarily and truly believed in what they were doing. Sully once asks himself, "They were brave kids. And if their bravery had been wasted in a war made by pigheaded old men, did that mean the bravery was of no account?" (619) Their experiences left them beyond scarred, causing one man to live in a permanent state of penance and the other to be haunted by old mamasan. Even though you may judge Willie for pretending to be blind or disagree with Sully's actions in the bush, remember survival. Remember compassion. And know that soldiers in Vietnam faced hell as bravely as they could. That is what these two sections teach you, that war is brutal, but that compassion and strength can be learned in dangerous territory. Because Willie Shearman is just trying to make amends for what he did. And although Sully's ghost may be justified in her haunting, her presence makes Sully want to be a better person than the man who watched her die without lifting a finger. These men may not have believed in love and peace the way Peter or Carol did, but they did believe in honor. And I believe in my heart that they are both honorable men.

Besides these few lessons, and glimpses of life and truth that I have shown you, Hearts in Atlantis is filled with many more. It is a book you will finish and immediately want to start over again, a book that shows how hearts don't usually break, just bend, and are actually much stronger than they appear (433). And all of this from the author who wrote Carrie, The Shining and countless other horror stories. Stephen King is the author of Hearts in Atlantis and I think that this novel says more about his writing ability and intelligence than any of his other works. Because pig's blood on the prom queen and a little telekinetic boy are both very entertaining situations, but this book contains truth. And that is the biggest reason why it matters. Because an intriguing plot and characters that you fall in love with are the hallmarks of any great novel, but truth is what matters. This novel does not sugar-coat, it does not give away all of its secrets and it might leave you with a million questions, but the wisdom contained in it is worth all of that. Atlantis sinks, people make mistakes, and war may be inevitable. But truth and love are worth fighting for, living for, dying for and certainly worth reading for. That is what Hearts in Atlantis is about and that is why it matters.

King, Stephen. Hearts in Atlantis. 2. New York: Pocket Books, a division of Simon and Schuster, Inc., 2000. 49, 433, 576, 619. Print.

Why books (and this blog) matter.

Ever since I picked up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the 4th grade I have been a bookworm and have made it my personal mission to devour as many works of literature as possible. Over the last 13 years I would venture to guess that I have ingested more than 500 books, from the classics of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, to the more modern David Mitchell and George R.R. Martin. Some of these works have been tasty novels filled with interesting plots and witty repartee, while others have left more than just a bad taste in my mouth.

But the job of a bookworm is not only to know the good from the bad, but also to be ever ready to make recommendations to newer members of the Oligochaeta class. At times, I have given out books as medicine, some Hunger Games to heal a broken heart or a little American Psycho to understand that you could have bigger problems. And other times, I finish the last page of a novel and think to myself, "This. So-and-so NEEDS THIS." But whatever the reason, I have always been prepared to lend a friend a novel, whether they are eager to take it from my hands, or accept it with a raised eyebrow and a shrug.

In many instances, however, my recommendations fall by the wayside, are placed on a shelf or in a bag, and are never opened or appreciated. There are so many fantastic books in the world, but it seems like if they aren’t being turned into movies, no one is interested, no one cares. That is why I am starting this blog, to expose the Internet to a fact that seems to be lost on my generation: Amazing books are out there, books that can take you on adventures and teach you things that you may never have known otherwise. Reading is not terminally uncool, but an essential part of a healthy life, one that should not be overlooked as paper becomes an obsolete material and virtual becomes reality. Because despite the format changes happening in the publishing world today, books themselves aren't going anywhere and still have so much to teach us if we are willing to read them.

The books that I will be discussing on this blog may be unknown or undersold, but they contain truth, wisdom and the essence of life itself. They might make you laugh or cry or just expose you to a world that you didn’t know existed before you turned to that first page. I cannot promise that you will love all of my recommendations, but what I can promise is that these books are worth your time, worth turning off the TV and closing your laptop for. These books were published to be read but more than that, they should be read because they matter. And I'm going to tell you why they matter.

So, here is to the odd, to the outstanding and to the obscure, books that everyone should read, but no one knows about. Happy reading my friends! I hope that these books help you find what matters to you.