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Revising Harry
Mark Sarvas gives us an elegant variation of life
By John Hood
First, let
me get this straight: I don’t dig this Harry fella one bit. I
don’t dig that he can’t hold his liquor; I don’t dig his flights
of digression; I don’t dig that he takes a back seat to sex, even
when he’s paying for it; I don’t dig that he puts a price on his
Jaguar even as he drives it, a value on his Bel Air mansion even
as he sits in its midst; and I particularly don’t dig that he’s
hitting on a tramp-stamped waitress when he’s supposed to be on
his way to his wife’s funeral.
In short, I
don’t dig that he’s a dolt.
What’s
remarkable is that despite the fact I don’t dig the fella, Mark
Sarvas kept me interested in his befallings throughout the whole
of his debut novel, Harry, Revised (Bloomsbury, $24.99).
Then again, I’ve always been a sucker for watching suckers break
themselves uneven.
And Harry
breaks in shards that shan’t be put back together without some
serious effort — effort, it seems, the near-old dolt is incapable
of making. See, Harry’s the “Not Too Guy,” which to the escort
service he frequents means he wants his chicks “blonde, but not
too,” or “bosomy, but not too.” Since Harry’s also “the
play-it-safer,” “the never-gambler” and “the
original-path-of-least-resistancer,” it could also mean he lives,
but not too.
Still, if
Harry could get out of his head for a minute, he’d be the first to
admit that he fucked up his own half-assed life; what’s
unconscionable is that he also had to fuck up the lives of women —
his wife Anna; his sister-in-law Claire; Molly, the object of his
obsession; Lucille, the ploy to get Molly. Hell, Harry even
further fucks up the already fucked-up men — Lucille’s locked-up
son Carl and Molly’s cheatin’ boyfriend Bruce.
The story’s
convolutedly simple and makes sense only to a dolt: Harry wants
Molly (who’s hot) so he’s extra-nice to Lucille (who’s not),
thinkin’ it’d win him some points. He sends her to his podiatrist
pal, he pays her bills, he gets her an apartment, he even tries to
bribe Lucille’s lughead boy into allowing his own mama to come see
him come visiting day — and to act happy when she does.
That Molly
and Lucille are waitresses in a diner called Café Retro and
Harry’s a mansion-dwelling medical man who’s flush from burying
his blue-blood wife plays a big part in uncommoning the ground;
that Harry uses Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo as his
guide plays another. People aren’t projects, and Harry’s no
swashbuckler.
Of course,
all Harry had to do was come clean and get to the truth of his
matter in order to get the girl. The tragic thing is it was there
in his numb skull all along.
Listen,
everybody honest has at one time or another considered completely
revising their lives; this book could be for them.
Mark Sarvas
reads from
Harry,
Revised at
5 p.m.
Saturday, June 14, at Books and Books,
265 Aragon
Ave.,
Coral
Gables.
For more information, call 305-442-4408. |
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