Krishna
This is actually a strange book. It is not a single story, at least not in my books (pun intended). It has the same characters but is a collection. It is not even a collection of short stories because the first one, and the best one, is like a novella and is much bigger than all the others. And the results are very mixed, I am afraid. Most of them do not work, and do not really do anything to move you. Especially after a good story, if you get to one that is really bad but has a character that you have emotionally invested in because of the previous good story, the disappointment is double. Each story is tied to a year in which the story happened.
The first story called ‘1960 – Low Men in Yellow Coats’ and it is simply brilliant! The story is about Bobby Garfield, who is a brilliant boy,, reads above his age – already into Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. He is just eight. Then a stranger who lives in his house as a paying guest,, Ted Brautigan gives Bobby Lord of the Flies to expand his mind further. Bobby adores the book. When Ted asks him to keep an eye on strangers in ‘Yellow Coats’ and gaudy cars. He also warns Bobby that if he sees any posters of Pet Missing or sees strange signs on a hopscotch grid on the street, to alert him immediately. He seems to be afraid of all of these.
Bobby’s best friend is SJ or Sully-John and Carol Gerber. Carol seems to really like Bobby (“Not pretty but sharp – does not miss much” according to a crisp summary from Bobby’s mom). Bobby wants a bicycle badly and is saving the tip money from Mom and does odd jobs to augment it. Ted gives him a job for a dollar a week. (To read him the paper – officially to satisfy Bobby’s mom’s curiosity – but to keep an eye out for yellow coated “low men” in secret) Then one day, in the middle of their conversation Ted goes completely blank and his eyes are wide and circles move there.
Bobby discovers that since he touched him in that state, he now can read minds. His mom, in the meanwhile, seems to be under the spell of her office boss called Don Biderman.
Bobby finds that he is absorbing the mystic powers of Ted and is good at the poker game in carnival. That scene where he predicts with uncanny ability where the card should be is very impressive.
Slowly, Bobby, and with him we the readers discover that when Low Men advertise for pets and have symbols near Hopscotch squares, they communicate to each other that they are hot on the scent of their quarry, which is Ted. We learn that they cannot avoid gaudy cars and clothes. We learn that their cars are not cars at all, but are alive and sentient.
Finally, we learn that they are the Dark Lord’s people and Ted is a Breaker who escaped. A very nice tie in with the Dark Towers series. In fact made me want to start reading that series!
Once, Ted gets cornered by men of yellow coats, despite Ted’s and Bobby’s careful watch. Ted sacrifices himself to prevent Bobby from being captured by Low Men.
Also there is a scene when Carol, beaten up, is healed by Ted and his mom mistakes it for rape and condemns him too.
When Bobby realizes that his own mother had betrayed Ted, leading to his capture, something breaks in him. Bobby takes revenge violently on the people who beat up Carol.
Bobby goes downhill from there. He loses his girlfriend Carol and the friendship of SJ, his close buddy due to his radical change, leaves town and goes to pieces until Ted’s note arrives with a flower. Very nice.
The second story is the one that lent title to this collection and is called ‘1966- Hearts in Atlantis’. This is about a college student Pete Riley who wastes his life playing hearts for money in the campus. He meets the Carol (yes, from the previous story but a young woman now, six years later) in an assembly line (working part time) and falls in love. He is obsessed with Hearts and plays nonstop, ruining his life, until the Vietnam War protests take over the college campus. Populated with other characters like Nathan Happenstand, a studious person determined to become a dentist; David “Dearie” Deerborn, the proctor who gets pranked with shaving cream on his door and is pro Lyndon Johnson and his Vietnam War; Stokely Jones a man in crutches. They come and go. Skip Kirk is a best friend of Pete who is equally hopelessly lost in Hearts to the point where both Skip and Pete are about to fail, let alone keep their scholarship eligibility. Ronnie Malenfant is the pimply superstar of Hearts who is the leader of the pack (Is he a mal – infant?) . The anti Vietnam War fever that sweeps over the campus. Stoke writing graffitti and falling in ice water ‘trying to drown’. Boring except for the last scene maybe and that is a very long time to wait before you find something interesting. Contrast between the first and second is shattering. Carol becomes a radical, very opposed to Vietnam War
Next comes ‘1983 – Blind Willie’ – William Shearman or Baseball Willie or Bill – One of the boys who held Carol as she was beat up by thuggish boys who were his friends. He becomes Bill and then Blind Willie. He pretends to be blind to get extra panhandling money and has elaborate dress changes to become this alter ego. A policeman is onto his scam and threatens him.. Then? abruptly ends. You learn Carol becomes a terrorist, planting bombs and presumed dead. You also know that Ronnie, friend in the first story, was in ‘Nam with William Shearman. Except for the tenuous connections with the first story, pretty boring.
Next : ‘1999 – Why we’re in Vietnam’ – It is about Sully how he was in Vietnam, Malefant by his side and William Shearman also there. When Sully’s guts hang out, it is Willie who saves him. He remembers everything years later on his way to another colleague Pag’s funeral, Pag having died of cancer. Pretty boring stuff. Old mamasan, who was killed by Malenfant in Vietnam always appears in front of him at random. Carnage in the street, while Sully finds an old glove from his youth. Very surreal and there is a hint that the carnage is all within Sully’s head. Boring and weird.
Next : ‘1999 – Heavenly Shades of Night are falling’ – Return of Bobby to Harford to the stories. This is slightly more interesting as it gives closure about what happened to Carol, ties in with the death of Sully and everything and the ending has a satisfying closure. While not as good as the first one, it is interesting that the only two readable stories are where Bobby features in the main!
I would give it an overall 4/10. It is ironic that if only the first story was published as a book, it would have gotten a much higher rating!
– – Krishna