Reviews: Looking For The Summer

During the waning years of the Ford administration, a rather unlikely alliance was struck-up between an American, an Iranian and an Afghani. The place of this chance encounter was at the front desk of the Hotel de Mines, where the two Asians were desperate to communicate with the clerk who spoke only French. The American, David Thompson, translated for them and the three become fast friends.

This unspectacular first encounter begins the ultra-spectacular tale Looking For The Summer, Robert W. Norris' autobiographical novel of culture shock and identity crises in the 1970s. Within weeks of this chance meeting, the American protagonist would find himself traveling overland to Iran, and then on to Afghanistan, Pakistan and eventually India, where the tale reaches a hopeful conclusion amid the squalor and depravity of Calcutta.

At first glance, it might seem that this is one of those calculated, dashed-out-overnight books which are a mainstay of the modern publishing industry, like one of the numerous biographies of Lady Di that appeared on the stands within days of her death. To jaded eyes, this is a novel too topical not to be contrived as newsstand fodder, since each of the four countries that Norris examines has been very much in the news since September 11th. However, a closer inspection reveals that this is merely a case of fantastical synchronicity, as this slim tome was first published nearly a year before the falling of the twin towers and America’s renewed interest in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, et.al.

Because of this unintentional topicality, the story presents an interesting paradox. Although the story is about a past that includes the war in Vietnam, pre-revolutionary Iran and Afghanistan before the Soviet's attempts at domination, it's also a tale of the present, a must-read for any American who wonders if there can be a non-fundamentalist Iran or if the Afghanis are capable of living without internal strife.

The story is told through the eyes of David Thompson, who is on a voyage of self-discovery after spending a year confined within a military prison for refusing service in Vietnam. Unlike many draft dodgers and military deserters from the era, Thompson is not filled with self-assuredness that he has acted out of moral indignation and cosmic righteousness when he’s released. His father, who died while he was in prison, had branded him a selfish coward, and David is afraid that assessment might be the real truth, despite his assertions that he is a pacifist and that the Vietnam war was fought for profit, which he mixes-in with all of the other rhetoric of the day.

His conscious reasons for traveling abroad are to escape the American-centric viewpoint of his father and the military that imprisoned him, as well as to fill his life with adventures. But there is a deeper, unconscious urge at play here, for these "adventures" are nearly always death defying and death courting. Unconsciously, the young Thompson is trying to prove his father wrong and allay his fears regarding his moral fortitude. In other words, he wants to prove to himself (and his dead father's soul) that he is no coward.

Even though this journey into the self supplies the meat of the story, most readers will probably find the scenes in Iran during the last years of the Shah's rule and in pre-Soviet Afghanistan most interesting. The writer finds the Afghani people to be both savage and noble, and it's obvious that he admires their character. He’s somewhat less enthusiastic about their more educated and "civilized" Iranian neighbors, finding the Iranians to be egocentric, vain and corruptible. The reader is left with the impression that he's more hopeful for the future of Afghanistan than he is for Iran, even though the Iran we see is closer to the American model.

In the hands of any author, Looking For The Summer would probably be a compelling read due to the inherent intrigue in the story’s setting. But Norris is a masterful writer and storyteller, and he uses his craft to elevate this tale above mere "compelling" or "interesting" to the realm of uplifting and insightful. He deftly paints a portrait of his locations using a visual poetry that is neither self-conscious nor affected.

An example would be this description of the disturbing scene of everyday life outside the train station in Delhi: "Women in tattered rags with cracked, yellow feet and rings in their noses stood cooking stews of begged vegetables over smoky fires. Children ran back and forth, some pissing on their toes. The narrow, winding streets and wide bazaars were littered with debris. Thick, intimate odors filled the air. Cripples walked the streets alongside half-naked natives with elephantiatis, with jaundice, with pellagra, with paralysis, all scooting about or assisted by various wooded supports and carts. Literally thousands of people with rickets, leprosy, skin diseases, and bloated bellies moved through the filth, the slime, the muck of the ancient streets."

Although he comes dangerously close at times, Norris resists the urge to turn his novel into a pamphlet against capitalism or American materialism, though he makes it clear that he finds both disturbing and a roadblock to human progress. Instead, he takes the storyteller's approach, letting the actions of his characters tell their own tale.

This is a fascinating novel, told in spellbinding English. I can’t recommend it enough.

Looking For The Summer is available online through Jacobyte Books at www.jacobytebooks.com.

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