THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 5, 1995 TAG: 9503020432
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY CHILES T.A. LARSON
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
RECESSIONAL
JAMES A. MICHENER
Random House. 484 pp. $25.
A TICKING BIOLOGICAL clock invades one's subconscious while reading James A. Michener's latest novel, Recessional. This one is set in a Tampa, Fla., retirement community of elderly men and women who are confronting the vicissitudes brought on by Father Time.
Now 87, Michener in his lifetime found the hours and the formula for writing more than 40 books, many attaining best-seller status. Not bad considering he was 40 when he began his first book, Tales of the South Pacific, which won a Pulitzer Prize.
A master storyteller, Michener frequently sprinkles numerous characters throughout many convoluted scenes along several plot lines. In probing the fascinating lives of a cross-section of the residents at The Palms, Recessional is true to form.
Several of the more prominent seniors have had socially noteworthy careers: a former U.S. senator; a courageous editor from Bogota, Colombia; a female pastor; a president of a small college in Iowa; a diplomat turned pilot who made a name for himself in Africa; a black federal judge; and the head of a private school for girls. Then there are the Mallorys, a wealthy, retired Midwestern banker and his wife, both in their 90s, who go dancing several nights a week.
At first, the residents appear to be without burden, progressing in an orderly long retreat from life. It is only when they are confronted with unforeseen issues, often compounded by their advancing years, that the octogenarian author, drawing on his own vast experience, pumps high energy into these older adults and their families.
Enter Andy Zorn, a successful obstetrician who, having fallen on hard times (two lawsuits, failed marriage), leaves the medical profession. He is employed at the retirement center to bring order and profit to the place. During the course of a year on the job, Zorn helps to stave off many of the conflicts confronting his charges, as well as a few challenges aimed directly at him.
Zorn and four elders considered to be the brains of The Palms spring into action when the Mallorys' greedy, uncaring children and grandchildren file a lawsuit charging them with irresponsible expenditure of family money. The band of five succeeds in undermining the charges and having the case thrown out of court. Offsetting the unattractive offspring is the devoted Umlauf family, which is determined to carry out the final wishes of an aged and unconscious mother, despite her flawed living will.
Zorn takes on shady lawyers and avaricious doctors and even enjoys a bit of romance. Adding zest to the routine of The Palms is his reacquaintance with a remarkable young woman whom he treated after a life-threatening highway accident while en route to take up his new position. Their relationship slowly evolves with her rehabilitation.
The pace of Recessional is lively. Michener successfully draws his characters into believable situations that are often touched with sadness and irony, and, occasionally, humor. One of the more poignant vignettes occurs when a retired federal judge and avid fisherman tries to rescue a friendly pelican that often shared his day's catch.
One afternoon the judge sees the pelican struggling to release itself from a long piece of filament net used by commercial fishermen. Without hesitation, he wades into the river to try to free the bird, only to lose his footing in the deepening water and quickly become entangled in the steel-like net. He drowns along with the bird in the swift current.
More uplifting, literally and figuratively, is the successful flight of a homemade airplane conceived and constructed by five of The Palms' more learned residents, whose average age is 79.2. The men's achievement is a source of enormous pride for the residents of The Palms, who believe that few outsiders think anyone their age can accomplish much of anything. It also serves as a striking metaphor for Michener's Recessional. MEMO: Chiles T.A. Larson is a photojournalist living in Ivy, Va. He is
working on a series of photo essays on Virginia institutions. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
James Michener, 87, tackles aging in the novel ``Recessional.''
by CNB