The movie stars Kevin Kline, the book stars exceptional writing
Written: Mar 17 '08
Product Rating:
Pros: subtle stories about memorable characters
Cons: none
The Bottom Line: Ethan Canin, a gifted novelist, also writes exceptional short stories. A collection of four of them, The Palace Thief is worth stealing time for.
eplovejoy's Full Review: Ethan Canin - The Palace Thief
One of these short stories is the basis for The Emperor's Club (2002), starring Kevin Kline. It's a shame that the Hollywood treatment seems to have done little to draw readers to Canin's rich writing. His prose and subtle storytelling soar. It's a pleasure to fly where they take us.
Canin writes with such assurance that even when a character uses such unusual words as "strumpet" and "pedimental," it sounds natural. Events are important for what they reveal of the people about whom Canin makes his readers care. When contradictions appear in a personality, they surprise both the character and us, allowing each to understand more fully.
What follows are bits of Canin's writing from each of the four stories in The Palace Thief, along with brief descriptions that reflect little of the rich narratives they seek to summarize.
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"Accountant" is perhaps the best of a very good bunch.
Canin's central character is a careful man whose caution is reflected in everything he does and says. He surprises himself when he shakes the foundations of his precisely ordered world by committing a seemingly out-of-character transgression at a "fantasy" baseball camp where he and other middle-aged men have fulfilled their dreams of meeting a sports legend. This passage comes when he contemplates a promotion he had hoped for:
I thought of Willie Mays in the eighth inning on April 30, 1961, hitting his fourth home run in a single game, and in the failing western light of the afternoon my own ambitions seemed suddenly paltry. I knew, and I suppose I had known for quite some time, that I would never make principal at Priebe, Emond & Farmer. The position would no doubt go to a younger man. And while this was a disappointment to me it was not a great one, for although it is embarrassing I must acknowledge that within me I have always felt the impulse for uproar and disorder.
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"Batorsag and Szerelem"
Some of the power of this story might be diminished if you recognize the title before Canin makes its meanings clear in a shattering, understated conclusion. This is about a boy who learns about himself and his family as he grows up in the early 1970s. He is enveloped partially in the shadow of his older brother's mathematical genius. In one scene, the younger son relates how their father tried to assure him that his disappointing report card is not a significant concern:
He pulled his hand from my shoulder and leaned closer to the window, this time looking at himself. "Sweet mercy!" he whispered. "How my very heart has bled, to see thee, poor old man. And thy grey hairs hoar with the snowy blasts."
"It's not that bad."
He ruffled my hair again. "Samuel Taylor Coleridge," he said. "That's what's important, William. Not your report card."
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"City of Broken Hearts"
A once-married man who is dating again wonders at his son's ease with women and tries to learn from his child. Here, Wilson listens as his son, Brent, talks with Margaret, Wilson's date:
They were talking about politics, of course, but Wilson couldn't help being impressed with Brent's conversational ingenuity. Instead of carping about the administration, as Wilson was tempted to do, Brent was trying to discern her opinions. He asked what she had thought about the different presidential candidates, about the glass ceiling in corporate America, and about the climate surrounding women in professional positions. Margaret talked enthusiastically. Wilson couldn't decide whether to be dismayed or buoyed. Had men of his son's generation merely taken a different tack--and perhaps a better one--to the same old goal of finding, attracting, and seducing a woman? Or had they somehow taken on the cause of women as their own? As for himself, he couldn't talk about these things. It wouldn't sit right.
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"The Palace Thief" is the basis for the movie The Emperor's Club.
A teacher at an exclusive prep school for boys doesn't reveal a student's cheating, and has cause to regret that failure again decades later. The teacher encounters another of his students, who is now an adult. He confirms that the former student had been unjustly passed over for an honor he earned when he was a boy:
Oh, how little we understand of men if we think that their childhood slights are forgotten! He smiled. He did not press the subject further, and while I myself debated the merits of explaining why I had passed him over for Sedgewick Bell forty-one years before, he pivoted the boat around and brought it back to shore. The confirmation of his suspicions was enough to satisfy him, it seemed, so I said nothing more. He had been an air force major in our country's endeavors on the Korean peninsula, yet as he pulled the boat onto the beach, I had the clear feeling of having saved him from some torment.
Canin's stories are masterful. His other collection, Emperor of the Air, contains tales as beguiling and affecting as the ones here. His novels, Blue River ( http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?author=Canin&title=Blue+River#reviews ) and For Kings and Planets are worthwhile as well. Another, America America, is scheduled for publication in June.
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