Twenty-seven years ago, when I was college, I worked at Encore Books in Mechanicsburg. I was a regular on the 4 - close shift, when I would stand at the information desk and help people find or order books. I was rarely put on the register because, when I was, I somehow managed to never reconcile my drawer properly, requiring the assistance of the manager, yada yada yada, double- and triple-counting, missing credit card slips, and being the last one out of the building.
Whatever.
But my favorite part was wandering the store, pretending to straighten the shelves while I imagined what it would be like someday to see my own books there, my own stories. I drifted through the fiction section, my eyes glazed over at the presence of so much beauty, so much imagination.
(This bookstore would eventually be part of Maile and my ill-fated first date, in which every aspect of our night out would eventually be destroyed…except our marriage. Our marriage is still standing.)1
I worked with so many wonderful people at Encore Books, and one in particular was named Pauline. She was a tiny little woman with jet-black hair and huge glasses, a distant relative perhaps of Edna Mode from The Incredibles.
Pauline was wonderful, and she knew everything about books, and she was one of the kindest people. One day, we were chatting about writers and books we loved when I mentioned my favorite book was A Prayer for Owen Meany, and she came alive, animated, and asked me if I had ever read The Brothers K.
“The Brothers Karamazov?” I asked. I had, in fact, read that Dostoevsky tome the summer before.
“No, no,” she said, waving her hand and dashing off, indicating that I should follow her.
“The Brothers K,” she said, pulling a novel out from the “D”s and presenting it to me two-handed, as if it were a delicacy on a platter. Which it was.
“If you liked A Prayer for Owen Meany, you’ll love this,” she said.
I bought it with my 40% discount2 and dove right in. And she was right.
The Brothers K follows the Chance family through the eyes of narrator Kincaid.3 His father’s dream of playing baseball mirrored my own father’s baseball dreams. Kade’s quiet and perceptive observations of his three brothers as they navigate their father’s attempt to return to baseball, their mother’s obsessive relationship with the church, and the disastrous consequences of the Vietnam War create a family drama unequaled since Steinbeck’s East of Eden.
It quickly became one of my favorite books.
Years later, Maile and I were married and living our life of ease in Florida, a time I look back on now as one of idyllic peace and love (though we didn’t have two pennies to rub together). I had re-read The Brothers K multiple times and yet had never considered whether or not David James Duncan had written something else.
Then, one day, in a Florida bookstore, I saw The River Why, a book released 13 years before The Brothers K.
I quickly snatched it up, and while it didn’t reach into the same parts of my soul that The Brothers K did, I still found it beautiful and aching. There’s always a sense in Duncan’s novels that the best parts of the natural world are slowly passing, and what will we do in the face of such knowledge? Many of his characters love something so much (baseball, fishing, religion) that it clouds their view of those around them. Often, the characters you end up loving the most are severely damaged by the world and the systems we’ve created.
And yet . . . in his books, there is beauty, the kind that brings a sudden well of tears to your eyes. And the people in his novels surprise you in ways that seem true and hopeful.
So, imagine my incredible delight last year when I heard that, after 27 years, he had another novel coming out.
Full disclosure: I haven’t yet finished Sun House. It is Duncan’s deepest dive yet into a wide cast of characters, 784 pages, and for me it’s been a very slow burn. I’m about 3/4ths of the way through, loving his characters (as usual), and eager to see where he’s taking me. I read 5-10 pages every night before bed, so I’m not making fast progress, but I trust him as a storyteller, and I’m in it until the end.
Besides, when one of my other favorite writers, Leif Eager, has words of such high praise for the book, well, it feels like I’m building a sort of camaraderie with both of them.
To order these books, or any other book on your mind, or to ask any book questions you might have, email us your order at hello@nooks.gallery. All orders over $25 receive free shipping. Our deepest thanks to those of you who buy your books from us—you help keep the dream of a small, independent bookstore alive.
The Brothers K is available in paperback for $19.00.
The River Why is available in paperback for $19.99.
Sun House is available in hardcover for $35.00
What is your favorite book that portrays an epic family drama?
We started the date at a Greek diner that would burn down soon afterwards; from there we went to Encore Books, my place of employment, which would close a few years later; and we ended the night watching the movie Gattaca at a movie theater that is no longer in existence. This summer we celebrate 25 years married, pretty much the only thing left standing from our first date.)
Working there was extremely counterproductive. I spent all of my earnings on books.
We named our first-born child after this character.
I haven't read anything by this author, so I'll have to add him to my list.
For epic family drama, I loved The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. And The Dutch House by Ann Patchett.
Added all three to my TBR!
As for epic family drama, I loved Patchett's The Dutch House. Stegner's Crossing to Safety is spectacular. I finished Last House by Jessica Shattuck recently and it was quite good.