The ‘Magic’ of a mixed political marriage

Editor’s note:  Anita Paddock’s review of books we should read are scheduled to appear on the second and fourth Friday of each month. Enjoy.

review by Anita Paddock

How many of us have said, “I can just hear my mother now.” Our mothers (and fathers, too) speak to us from across town or from the grave, it doesn’t matter.

In Richard Russo’s latest novel, “That Old Cape Magic,” he examines the life of Jack Griffin, a college professor and sometimes Los Angeles screen writer. Jack, 57, is married to a woman, Joy, who comes from a much different family than he does. His parents are liberal college professors, Yale graduate snobs who spend their summer vacations on Cape Cod, a place worthy of them and an escape from their jobs in the “Mid-fucking-West,” at so-so universities not quite worthy of them.

Joy’s parents are Republicans from California, whose children’s names all begin with the letter “J.” They play board games like Clue and Monopoly. They are exactly the kind of family Jack’s parents ridicule.

The novel begins with Jack driving to Cape Cod with his father’s ashes in the trunk of his car, where they’ve been for over a year. He’s to meet his wife there, and together they will attend a wedding of their daughter’s best friend. And while he’s there, he’ll deposit his father into the ocean.

During the trip, he flashes back to all the childhood vacations he took with his parents on Cape Cod, singing “That Old Cape Magic” to the tune of “That Old Black Magic.” Those vacations were upbeat, and, depending upon their finances, they stayed anywhere from a week to a month.

He remembers over-hearing his father confess his infidelity, only to hear his mother confess hers as well. He remembers particularly the summer that he made friends with the Browning family, but his parents made fun of the mom and dad because “they taught junior high, for God’s sake.”

His mother, long-time divorced from his father, lives in an assisted-living facility and frequently calls Jack on his cell phone, berating his dead father, his in-laws, and mostly, him. She’s the mother from hell.

This is a thinking person’s novel. Russo, who won the Pulitzer in 2002 for “Empire Falls” is an extremely talented writer who can make a reader laugh out loud over and over again, as you’ll discover in the scenes involving the catastrophe that happens at a wedding rehearsal.

His prose is thought-provoking and guaranteed to make you examine your relationships with your parents, your spouse and your children.

Like Jack Griffin, you might question whether his mother was correct when she said, “Marriage is combat. Somebody hurts, somebody gets hurt. One does, the other gets done to.”

But, like Jack Griffin, you might also learn that for most of us, we just try to do the best we can. And, hopefully, no harm is done.

•••

Since this book is about a college professor and his college professor parents, I called upon Dr. Kelly Jennings, a professor of English at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, who received her doctorate in 1995 from the University of Arkansas. She met her husband, Dr. Mark Burgh, at Fayetteville, where he recently obtained his doctorate. Their daughter, Cooper, says her parents are “a pair of docs.”

Kelly, the daughter of a rocket scientist with NASA grew up in New Orleans, while Mark is from Bensalem, Pa., where his family was in the bakery business. They said they certainly could identify with the couple in the book; it’s very rare for married professors to have jobs at the same university. Mark has a temporary position at UAFS, and they hope it works out for them to stay at UAFS, but it’s a wait-and-see thing now.

They, too, love Richard Russo, and both just finished reading “That Old Cape Magic.”  When asked if they had a special place that made them happy, they said a trip to an art museum, several good book stores, and a good Chinese restaurant, topped off with a really good movie was their idea of a great vacation.

Kelly loves climbing mountains, and Mark trudges along behind her. He recently completed a poem about watching her crouch over high edges, poised over the drops.  And how this is love.

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