Paul Harding - This Other Eden (Penguin, 2023) ****½

In "This Other Eden", Paul Harding fictionalises a historical event, the removal of a few families from Malaga Island, located in the New Meadows River in Maine, United States. 

Harding is known for his exquisite penmanship, which is also the case here. With a deep tenderness and lyricism he describes the lives of the people living on the island, originally outcasts who developed their own secluded little world, as a kind of metaphor of this world, with its horror and beauty, its humanity and its cruelty. 

The few dozen characters all have their own personal story, their strong personalities and special traits, some of them with special and unique talents, but also with their problems and issues, which makes their interaction even more powerful. They are partly descendants of a freed slave and are of different complexions, in the words of a visitor to the island:  "There was white Negroes and coloured white people. Some of them were grey. Some of them pink, like they were raw or something. And some of them were yellow, like waxy cracked old piano keys."

Despite the poverty, the malnutrition, the bugs on the island and the lack of prospects of its inhabitants, you fill sympathy for them, and especially when the bureaucratic outside world of politics and religion starts to intervene. Harding's book has been criticised for not being truthful to what actually happened, or for using elements that come more from myths around the island than from fact. I do not think that this matters to appreciate the novel. Harding has written a beautiful, heart-rending and lyrical novel that juxtaposes different communities, both with their strengths and weaknesses, without actually judging about right and wrong. Even if the bureaucrats and the teacher are clumsy and disrespectful, their intentions - and especially at that time in history - are somewhat understandable. 

It's a nice piece of literature. 

Paul Harding - Enon (William Heinemann, 2013) **

Zijn vorige roman, Tinkers, vond ik schitterend, en ik keek dus echt uit naar zijn nieuwe roman, die voorgaat in de familiegeschiedenis die in de eerste roman zijn aanzet vond.

Het verhaal begint bij de dood van Katie, de tienderdochter van de ik-figuur, Charlie Crosby, de kleinzoon van de hoofdfiguur van "Tinkers". Charlie's verdriet is te groot om te verwerken, en hij gaat er helemaal kapot van, stort in elkaar. Zijn vrouw Susan verlaat hem, en hij evolueert van kwaad naar erger : zelfverwaarlozing, pillen, pijnstillers, drank, diefstal ... tot hij op de rand van de dood belandt, en de grens tussen leven en dood beginnen vervagen in zijn visoenen en dromen, als een soort modern Orfeus die de onderwereld intrekt op zoek naar zijn geliefde.

Het grote verschil met Tinkers is de grotere toegankelijkheid van zijn taalgebruik, dat minder gezocht, maar ook minder  lyrisch en aangrijpend is. Het eindresultaat is een heel droevig verhaal, waarbij je je afvraagt wat een auteur ertoe aanzet een dergelijk onderwerp te kiezen, of nog wat de literaire meerwaarde ervan is.

Paul Harding - Tinkers (Bellevue Literary Press, 2010) ****½

"Tinkers" wond the Pulitzer Prize, not a small feat and rightly so. This relatively short novel - only 190 pages - is a pretty unique achievement, defying traditional forms you would expect for a novel.

The plot is simple and consists of two threads. One a the beginning of last century, telling the story of an epileptic man, Howard, trying to survive with wife and children by peddling from village to village. The second is about his son George, lying on his deathbed in his old age, surrrounded by his family.

Howard's epileptic spells give him visions of the world that are more acute, and possibly give some insights in what lies behind reality. George was a clock-maker, knowing the mechanisms behind time, its subtleties and intricacies.

Harding not delves into the depths of human existence, but adds a world of language that goes beyond the rational and descriptive, conjuring up images that present reality differently, less familiar but more adequate and full of the emotional wonder it has that goes beyond the explicable, whether it's about nature, about feelings, about relationships or about life itself. His prose is lyrical and eloquent, mythical and mistifying. It is not always easy to read : you need to take your time and experience the text rather than just read it. In that sense, it's really comparable to good music.

This is poetry in a prose format. This is music in words.

Don't miss it.