Paul Harding's Follow-Up to Tinkers

I encountered Paul Harding's work in 2010, after his novel Tinkers won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.  Tinkers was about George Washington Crosby, a clock repairman whose own time is about to run out.  As he lays on his deathbed, Crosby relives his troubled childhood and his relationship with his epileptic father.  I had mixed feelings about the book, but Harding's unique and mesmerizing use of language was apparent.  His follow-up, Enon, is due out this month and I was lucky enough to get my hands on an advance copy.

Harding's subject this time is Charlie Crosby, grandson of George Washington Crosby.  The mood, as in the first book, is certainly not light.  Charlie has just lost his daughter in an accident and his wife has left to spend time with her family, though it becomes clear she is not coming back.  The reader delves into Charlie's day to day life which becomes more and more unsettling.  He barely eats, wanders the town of Enon, visits his daughters grave nightly, and has bizarre interactions with the people of the town. 

If there is one thing to take from this book it's that Paul Harding is an absolute master with language.  The disconcerting details of Charlie's plunge into borderline madness, mixed with the vivid descriptions of Enon and its people, are truly amazing.  The subject matter, while unpleasant, shows what a parent with no support could go through after losing a child.

Chris May- Adult Services Manager