A Flatland Fable

by Joe Coomer

Horgan, a fireman and Little League baseball coach, in the small town of Eckley, realizes that his life has reached a turning point

Genres: Fiction

188 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1986

About the author

Joe Coomer is a fiction and nonfiction writer who lives outside of Fort Worth, Texas, and on the coast of Maine. He "spends his winters in Springtown, Texas, where he runs a pair of large antique malls. He lives in a fairly new Victorian house that he spent a year and a half building in the late eighties, a project he wrote about in Dream House [1991]. His wife, Isabelle Tokumaru, runs her paintings conservation practice in the third story, while he writes novels in the kitchen, where the food is close. Summers, they live in Stonington, Maine, an active fishing village on the coast. When the weather's nice, he takes his old motor sailer, "Yonder", on day sails and cruises down east. He chronicled her purchase, restoration, and his stupidities at sea in Sailing in a Spoonful of Water [1997]."

Reviews

[Herb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I probably read this fifteen years ago. It's a tiny little book about an East Texas landscape more than any of its characters. Small miracles happen here, concluded by one vast miracle that changes everything.

"There are rumors, theories, that suggest if there was enough water in the ditch, enough to keep it running, the water would make it all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, the ocean. But this would require a degree of slope almost unimaginable to most. It would require the term 'downhill.' Most people continue to park their trucks in neutral... 'Look,' the people say, pointing down and the flat earth, 'isn't this the best goddamn country for baseball you ever saw?'"

A delight.

7/11/2010 -- Read it again this morning. Stunning, better even than I'd remembered. A dozen little stories about a single day, sliding among one another like a pail full of fish, interwoven and shining, one periodically distinct and individual for a page or two before slipping back into the others.

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book's story takes place all in one day, which makes it a bit different than most others. Yes, we do get some background on some of the characters, but the bulk of the story centers around one, hot afternoon in a very small town. Following Horgan, the town's only paid fireman, we make the rounds with him as he answers calls, goes to see his father in the hospital and gets the kids on the baseball team he coaches ready for the big game that night. Those scenarios might not sound exciting in themselves, but there is an undercurrent of tension. Horgan has had a long-standing friction with the lady who owns the one main business in town - a grain elevator that could blow up at any moment due to the weather conditions. Add to this his vigilant watch on a man in town who wants to help hasten the apocalypse and an unhappy ballplayer who decides to get his attention in the wrong way. The descriptions of the town really bring the place to life and the ending is one of the best I've come across in a long time.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eckley is a small town in the middle of a flat nowhere. Most people in town work at the elevator which is run by a hard, mean woman. Horgan is the town's only fireman and he is supposed to go inspect the elevator today but the boss will do anything to avoid that, even destroying her own house. Profit is more important to her than anything else. Horgan's father is very sick and a long kept family secret is revealed before he passes. Horgan life changes drastically in the course of the one day described in this novel. I enjoyed this novel and the characters.

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

My second time reading this and I am reminded why it remains one of the books I keep and continue to keep moving with me. The authors ability to portray a few stories at once, all with a focus on inter-personal relations and personal rejuvination reminds me of a Kent Haruf. I'm glad I picked it up again, it gives me another author whose entire library, I am reminded, I need to read.

[Krisnow18 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joe Coomer is an AWESOME writer. Every book of his has been wonderful and all written in a totally different style. You cannot pigeon hole him at all. This book takes place during one day - when Horgan is questioning his life and waiting for something to happen. And when it does..........much more than he could ever have expected.

[Becca Stokes · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far a beautiful tome - a gentle read, makes me miss Texas!

[bob gould · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been years since I read this but recall it had the best first few pages since Cannery Row.