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Category:
Literary Fiction
Publisher: Richard French
ISBN-10: 1539336794
Type: Fiction
Pages: 299
Copyright: June 29, 2013
ISBN-13: 9781539336792
Price: $2.99 (eBook)
An almost-forgotten 19th century entertainer who performed magic tricks, wrote highly original songs, and got into grave trouble provides the subject for a play in the 1950's and later an opera.
Loretta Freeman persuades her friend Bruce to write a play about a 19th century American entertainer who told stories, performed magic tricks, wrote songs, and got into deep trouble when he strayed from his calling. Loretta also persuades her parents, who run a theater company, to produce the play.
The bulk of the novel consists of brief accounts of people involved in the production or who are interested in it. As well, the story includes two novellas, one consisting of the diary of the entertainer's wife Grace, the other about a composer and librettist who put together an opera based on Grace's diary.
The purpose of "Brief Lives" is to illustrate a common feature of our existence on earth. We compensate for the inconveniences that come at us every day with acts of creativity.
Excerpt
“What’s his name?” a boy who straddled his father’s shoulders asked as he stroked the snout of Officer Manning’s horse.
“Her name,” Manning corrected him. There’d been talk for years about shutting down the equestrian division, but the present stable full of horses would die before anyone did anything. “Blue Bonnet.”
The boy’s tongue stumbled over the consonants. His father thanked Manning and the two of them went to a variety store across the street.
Light rain fell. Most of the pedestrians picked up their pace. The sky was supposed to be clear by seven. Raindrops danced on his black slicker.
Manning checked his watch – time to move down the street, but he stayed in front of the Olympia, thinking of the dinner he’d had at noontime – boiled potatoes, cabbage, corned beef, and tapioca pudding. He surmised that most of the passersby thought about earthy things, too. From the look of their clothes and their purposeful, boastful strides, he supposed that many of them nourished fancier ideas than he. Some had law-breaking in mind, at least on the level of dream, and no officer of the law would catch them because they lacked the courage to act on their desires.
He noticed a young man loitering under the marquee, looking lost and miserable, breaking no laws but the one against loitering and no one had complained. Perhaps he’d wanted to be an actor, as Manning had once done, but something held him back. The young man, whose last name was Ruddock, looked at Manning blankly. We will have more to do with Gary Ruddock later.
“Hey, Pa.” The voice he’d been waiting to hear called to him. While her father frowned, Millie crossed the street against the light, early for work as usual, good girl. He didn’t care for her new boyfriend Hank, who was too proud of his knack for getting his name in the papers and imagined that one stroke of luck was the same as a long career and lasting fame.
Manning’s son was serving in Korea. He didn’t completely approve of that either, but Maurice would do his best. An uncle had been crippled for life in the Ardennes; he’d lost a brother in the Battle of Bastogne. He agreed with his wife that the family had poor luck when they sent their men to war. They won medals that didn’t do a thing for them in later life except make them sentimental.
“Ma wants you to have this.” Millie handed him a sandwich wrapped in waxed paper that he put in his saddle bag. He watched her go into the lobby, half running because of her joy in life and her confidence that she could meet any situation that came her way. She wouldn’t be an usherette for long. He liked that.
The walkie-talkie on his belt rattled with static. “Are you still in front of that moth-eaten theatre? There’s an accident at Cromwell and Pierce.”
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