The Spyglass Tree

by Albert Murray

By “our premier writer about jazz and the blues . . . and a fictional tale spinner in the grand Southern tradition” ( Washington Post Book World ),  The Spyglass Tree  is a deeply affecting novel of elegant, lyrical reminiscence and profound sophistication about a young black man’s advent into the world of academia—an imaginary Alabama college—in the 1930s.

Admist the excitement of the world of ideas and adventures with new friends, Scooter sallies into “the territory of the blues,” where recollection becomes legend. Here he learns to deal with the vicissitudes of life—the complexities of family ties and camaraderie, his sexuality, pride of excellence in school, the darker realities of history and human passion—through confrontation and improvisation, and with style and courage.

“[ The Spyglass Tree ] strikes a perfect balance between the black folk tradition and Faulknerian rumination. . . . One reads this very fine novel for the glissando effect of its language, the vibrancy of its characters and the unabashed pleasure Mr. Murray takes in nostalgia for its own sake . . . with level-headed clarity and honesty.”— The New York Times Book Review

Genres: Coming Of Age, Fiction

207 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Robert Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Albert Murray’s melodic, synchronistic universe of The Spyglass Tree, the second novel of his semi-autobiographical trilogy, Scooter is the ecstatic, signifying, smile-cracking, knowledge-devouring, hard-working eyewitness and proclaimer of goodness in the midst of the darkest days of Jim Crow. He voraciously pursues his studies at a university alerted by the chiming of the same plantation bell that metered the lives of slaves only generations before. Scooter is still the kid in the chinaberry tree in Gasoline Point cataloging what he could and couldn't see from the most prestigious perch in his yard but his vision has expanded and he desperately and joyfully identifies and names every good thing, every good person, everyone who ever worked with him and contributed and cared and challenged him to get where he knew he could get. Ask yourself, whatever color yourself is, what kind of image of young African American males you’d have if the only information; visual, written or aural was pulled from your daily surfing of the internet. When you think about the word “intellectual” what images come to mind? It’s as if Murray knew, because his universe is simultaneously past, present and future, that no one would believe that these outwardly cool, hip, jook joint jiving young black men were smarter than “all y’all” combined, to quote my friends in the South, so he proves it by frantically but carefully and precisely documenting every book, discipline, artistic nuance, sensibility, skill and discovery of Scooter and his classmates whose insular academic community existed almost invisibly within a Southern white world that all too often relegated the entire student body to the mythological realm of no good n-----s. Encounters with whites were avoided or carefully managed and the city and surrounding landscape were divided into black and white zones in which each respective community circulated freely, careful to avoid friction along the edges. Murray doesn't ignore the bad folks, black or white, but they intrude on Scooter’s world uninvited and he manages them and spends no more time than necessary doing it. This portrait of the artist as a young man is exuberant, lyrical, eye-opening and humbly awe-inspiring.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Spyglass Tree is the second novel in a Murray’s semi-autobiographical story of living in the Jim Crow south. Michiko Kakutani describes the work as “A jazz improvisation on Goethe’s ‘Wilhelm Meister’ and Joyce’s ‘Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.” I cannot think of a more apt description.

Murray’s language through is wonderful. Set in perfect voice, the novel follows Scooter as he makes his way to the university. He is constantly reminded of his past, either through the many characters he meets who represent various stereotypes, or by the setting itself (notably the university bell, which happened to be the plantation bell in prior years). He is a smart, hard-working young man who is both inescapably a part of his heritage, and yet also respected as an intellectual and good boy.

“But as soon as you came into the library it was almost always as if you were all alone and on your own again, not that you were ever really unaware that you were still actually surrounded by that many other students, faculty, and staff, and also visitors and sightseers. But even so it was very much as if everybody else was there to be an incidental part of what a college campus and a college library were really supposed to be.
Not only that, but what with the biggest globe (revolving on a tilted axis) I had ever seen, and what with all of the maps and atlases and mileage charts along with all of the books and documents and pictures and relics and artifacts only that many short steps away, it was also almost as if you had a sand table of the whole world always all to yourself.” (30)

He comes across the criminal, and the hip. He is exposed to abuse and abusers. He becomes a man in the midst of all of it.

“Schoolboy that I was and to some extent still am, that was what came to mind at the very outset of the first show I saw her open and just as I was about to whisper to Marcus and Clayton that there were few things anywhere in the world better with some down-home bootleg ale than a good-looking brown-skinned woman with another blue-steel fairy tale, there were the drum rolls, the piano vamping, and her opening proclamation: Let’s drink some mash and talk some trash this evening.” (120)

Perhaps no passage shows how many different strings Murray pulls together in this novel. It is musical, and different, and wonderful.

See my other reviews here!

[Trudy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love everything by Albert Murray. This book too. My only quibble is that at first it is a bit hard to comprehend, due to the experimental writing style, but after one gets the hang of it, it is a wonderful novel. I won't go into details except to say that it really captures a certain cultural and social mood in the South that even though before one's time, if one has lived in the Deep South, one knows what he is talking about. Vivid, engaging, and enriching, I fully recommend it.

[Rita · Rating 4 out of 5]

'...the second novel of his semi-autobiographical trilogy, Scooter is the ecstatic, signifying, smile-cracking, knowledge-devouring, hard-working eyewitness and proclaimer of goodness in the midst of the darkest days of Jim Crow.'

[This follows Train Whistle Guitar, and the 3rd is Seven League Boots. I have now read all three.]

This is very much a continuation of Train Whistle Guitar. Scooter is now in college [Tuskegee though not named], with plenty of flashbacks to the childhood years already covered in TWG. It is VERY useful to have read TWG before reading Spyglass Tree; many characters appear in both.

There are passages that relate to encounters with whites, always illuminating. But as in the other volumes, most of the 'action' takes place within a black community. Fascinating book. Scooter is unbelievably gifted both socially and intellectually, and draws many mentors to himself.

[Eboni]

Tries to copy from Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man". He has mirrored his Tuskegee experience with Ellison who was a year or two ahead of him. However, it does get into the back roads of Tuskegee