Articles Archives
A rewarding struggle
Readers say 'Tale' title was difficult at times, but worth it in the
end
March 12, 2008
Lifestyles, The Daily News,
By Ben Beagle
Readers are introduced to Thomas Mullen's 2006 novel The Last Town on
Earth through the eyes of an anonymous doctor and two nurses. They are
making the rounds in Timber Falls, checking on victims of the flu. It
is 1918 and a particularly virulent strain of flu is decimating communities
across the country.
In one home, where "neighbors had reported unnerving sounds,"
the doctor enters a bedroom where he hears coughing. Inside are two
beds.
"Intermittent coughs came from the figure on the right, whose head
rested on a pillow stained a dark red," Mullen writes. "The
earlobes, nostrils, and upper lip were blackened with dried blood; the
eyes were shut and the lids were a dark blue, as was the skin around
them."
Mullen's grim prologue provides a disturbing picture of the ravages
of the flu, which in 1918 killed millions worldwide and helps move forward
the main plot of The Last Town on Earth.
"His words painted a picture for me so that I could see everything
that was happening," says Linda Daviau of Batavia, "even if
I didn't always like seeing it."
The 1918 influenza outbreak - and how people react to the fears the
flu provokes - is the focus of The Last Town on Earth, this year's selection
in the "A Tale for Three Counties" community reading project.
Started six years ago, Tale is designed to encourage people to read
the same book and discuss the issues it raises. The current program
culminates this week with talks and book signings with the author.
The Last Town on Earth is a fictional story inspired by a little-known
footnote to American history. During the 1918 pandemic, some healthy
towns actually enacted quarantines in an effort to keep the flu out.
Mullen's story, which takes place at the height of the flu epidemic,
finds the small mill town of Commonwealth enacting such a quarantine.
When a desperate stranger is shot and killed and another hidden to keep
them from possibly contaminating the town, people's behavior changes.
They become suspicious of others. They question loyalties. And they
do not act in the idealized way that might be expected from a community
conceived as a haven for workers weary of exploitation.
"I don't think you can isolate life from happening. Life is what
it is," said Leatha Taber of Albion. "Life isn't always going
to be wonderful."
At book discussions, including one last week at Woodward Memorial Library
in Le Roy, readers often wondered what they would have done if they
were guarding the town.
"At first, everyone agreed that they would have tried to help the
soldier from afar and not shoot him," says Sue Border, director
of Woodward Library. "But as we discussed what would have happened
if he wasn't willing to stop and ... continued to walk towards the town,
people's reactions varied. A few said in order to protect their families
they may have stopped the intruder."
Readers say the subject matter - particularly Mullen's dramatic descriptions
- made for a book that was, at times, hard for them to read.
"After reading a few pages of this book, I put it down. I didn't
like it," says Tally Almquist of Bergen, who was among several
readers who say they went back and finished the book, and came away
with a greater appreciation of the story and time period.
Upon later reading, Almquist said she "became more and more interested
in it until at the last I had trouble putting it down."
Joyce Thompson-Hovey of Pavilion says the descriptions helped transport
the reader into the very lives and emotions of the characters, but at
the same time "the vivid manner in which he delves into their experiences
took me beyond my comfort level."
"My first reaction was that this is not the type of book I was
going to enjoy," says Thompson-Hovey, who often reads historical
fiction novels. "However, there was something that drew me to continue
to read on and I am very glad I did Š I found Philip's experiences
set against the various reactions of Americans to the flu epidemic and
the conflict that arose a most interesting read."
Julie Caton of Oakfield first picked up the book while she herself was
sick, and "Mullen's palpable descriptions of the flu only made
me feel worse so I put the book down."
She revisited the book a few weeks later. "Š After the second
reading I felt 'wonderful and horrible' like Philip after his ordeal,"
she says. "I understood how my own suffering influenced my thinking."
Tale organizers acknowledge that the book's details, and especially
the prologue, may have troubled readers.
"The prologue creates strong reactions in readers, and it seems
like it is either extreme interest of extreme fear in what is to follow,"
says Leslie DeLooze, the reference and community services librarian
at Batavia's Richmond Memorial Library, who has spearheaded the Tale
project since its 2003 inception.
In the opening pages, readers don't know any of the names of the sick
people or of the doctor and nurses who tend to them. "It hasn't
been brought to the personal level at this point," DeLooze said.
"The prologue sets the scene for the book, letting us know what
the characters in the town of Commonwealth will probably face, and why
they are so afraid."
Tale times
Thomas Mullen, whose debut novel The Last Town on Earth is this year's
"A Tale for Three Counties" book selection, makes two stops
in Batavia on Thursday, followed by programs in Medina and Perry. His
schedule:
THURSDAY: Talks and book signings at 1 p.m. in Room T102 of the Conable
Technology Building at Genesee Community College, 1 College Rd.; and
7 p.m. at Richmond Memorial Library, 19 Ross St.
FRIDAY: Talk and book signing at 7 p.m. Friday at Lee-Whedon Memorial
Library, 620 West Ave., Medina.
He is also scheduled to do a Friday morning interview with Lisa Scott
of WIVB-TV, channel 4 in Buffalo, and meet winners of The Daily News
sponsored book review contest for a lunch-time discussion at D&R
Depot in Le Roy.
SATURDAY: Talk and book signing at 2 p.m. in the auditorium at Perry
Elementary-Middle School, 50 Olin Ave., Perry, a program hosted by Perry
Public Library.
Courtesy of Batavia Newspapers Corporation