Reno
by Marty Gervais
Mosaic Press, 2005
Reviewed by Adam Swimmer
Reno took Marty Gervais three days to write, less
than a day for me to read and an hour to pen the
review. Well, that's not exactly true. I actually read
the book a few days ago and am just getting to write
the review now, so I don't know how long it will
exactly take me yet.
And I can't claim to truly know how long it took
Gervais to write the book, only that he originally
wrote it for the 3-Day Novel Contest which Anvil Press
holds every Labour Day weekend, so I assume his first
draft took three days to write, not accounting for any
planning ahead of the contest. But seeing as he
entered in 2002 and the book has a 2005 publishing
date with Mosaic Press not Anvil, I imagine the book
has gone through a number of revisions in the
process.
But this contest clearly has shaped the story. Unlike
much of Canadian fiction, Reno is not filled with
heavy-handed symbolism and flowery prose that attempts
to make grand unfounded statements about Canadian
culture or identity. Reno is a simple story about a
polio-stricken 12-year-old boy in the summer of 1957
who is confined to his house.
Henry Aldrich spends much of his time in his attic
bedroom of his house in Muskoka, writing letters to
famous people, such as Maurice Richard, John
Diefenbaker and Louis Armstrong. Many of them send him
autographed photos which he displays in a sort of
gallery on a bulletin board.
But one person refuses to respond to any of Henry's
letters: third baseman for the Detroit Tigers Reno
Bertoia, who's in the running for the American League
leading hitter title. He and the ball player are both
originally from Windsor. He follows the season with
baited breath. The boy has even changed his name to
Reno to show his support and because he never liked
his given name. (Gervais makes it clear at the outset,
that although Reno Bertoia is a real person and the
baseball stats listed are accurate, the book itself is
a work of fiction.)
The prose is light and matter-of-fact. You almost feel
like a 12-year-old is telling a story. Technically,
he's telling it as an adult, as he occasionally breaks
from the narrative to contextualize things and he uses
the odd word or two a kid wouldn't, but the repetition
of information and rambling paragraphs adds to the
flavour of it all.
Much of how Henry experiences the world is mediated.
There are not many people he physically interacts with
on a regular basis. There are his parents, his tutor
and later in the book another boy named Billy. But
most of the rest of the people, he communicates to
through letters, hears about through his father, or
simply watches them through the attic window, which
has a view of most of the town. He is literally
sheltered from the real world, gleaning information
about what's going through newspapers, radio and
gossip.
As a result, the book lacks direction at times. Henry
gets sidetracked in his idol worship of Reno Bertoia
by his new friend Billy, the rumour mill and all of
the other famous people to whom he writes letters. If
the novel was longer this might cause problems, but
its brevity and wit manage to sustain it to the end.
Some of these letters are quite entertaining. I
especially like when he writes Paul Martin Sr. about
his polio and gets a letter back where Martin talks
about how the Liberal government is making "great
strides in health care." That made me laugh out
loud.
So despite its lack of any grand point, Reno is a
pleasant work of fiction that keeps you engaged.
Oh, and for anybody keeping track, this review
actually took me a little over an hour and a half to
write.
Adam Swimmer is a freelance writer living in Toronto.
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