When Mermaids Sing

by Mark Zvonkovic

In the early 1970s, religious cults aggressively recruited baby boomers who were coming of age in a new era of experimentation and self-pursuit. Many parents, desperate when a child would disappear into a cult, resorted to hiring a "deprogrammer" who would, usually surreptitiously, "extract" the child from the cult and use deprogramming techniques to convince the child to return to the family. This practice was extremely controversial and often resulted in criminal and civil actions, as well as good newspaper copy. Larry Brown is a young, self-absorbed junior high school English teacher in Medford, Massachusetts with serious relationship problems. One weekend he meets Jenny, a young woman who is attempting to extract her brother from a cult that has an ashram on Cape Cod. Larry soon discovers that his cousin, Bradley, is a member of the same cult. With the help of Sam Henry, a feared deprogrammer also known as "Black Lightning," they kidnap Jenny's brother and Bradley from the ashram and Larry is forced to face the hard reality that his cousin is in a precarious emotional state. Larry's comfortable liberal principles are tested, and his cherished childhood memories are shattered by the ordeal.

248 pages, Paperback

First published September 18, 2009

About the author

Mark Zvonkovic is a writer who lives in Rosarito Beach, Baja California Mexico with his wife Nancy and their two dogs. Finn and Cooper. He has written three novels, and he also writes book reviews and essays that appear in online publications. Before retiring to Mexico, Mark practiced law for thirty five years at three multinational law firms in Houston, Texas and New York City. He attended college at Southern Methodist University and Boston University, and his law degree is from SMU School of Law. Mark grew up as an oil company brat and lived in Latin America, Texas and New York.

Reviews

[Glenda Bixler · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Mermaids Sing
By Mark Zvonkovic
iUniverse, Inc.
ISBN: 9781440167171
239 Pages


Prepare to sit back and enjoy the beautifully written literary fiction of Mark Zvonkovic in When Mermaids Sing. When a former English teacher also has the creative genius to tell stories, it results in a pleasurable read, no matter the topic. In Zvonkovic’s case, his first novel takes us back to the 70s when there were many, many religious cults which aggressively recruited young people, often resulting in a complete break of teens from their families.

As I started to read and review the issues that led to what was, in essence, brainwashing, I thought of today’s reality shows that reveal how people now use drugs and alcohol to find that “something” that is lacking in their lives. Why is it that there are always those that seek “alternative” methods to find what seems to be missing?

Larry Brown appears to be the low man on the totem pole in his family—he’s just a high school English teacher, while his parents teach at the college level. On the other hand, he’s satisfied with his life and looks back on his early years with pleasure. Now, however, he’s heard from his best friend that his companion is cheating on him and he’s taking a harder look at the relationship, even following Milly to theatres where she is an actress. When he sees her leaving with a fellow actor, carrying an overnight bag, he is forced to face the truth. Not only is she cheating, but she later continues to lie, dominate and abuse his feelings for her.

So when he attended his father’s annual “welcome” for his students, he was open to meet and talk with Jenny, who had been captured by his father in one of his usual discussions about W. H. Auden. But as soon as his father moves on to other responsibilities, Jenny and Larry change to more personal topics. Trying to get himself out of an embarrassing situation, he comments about his cousin Bradley being involved with meditation—which leads Jenny to share that her brother, Josh, had joined a cult that has an ashram, a retreat on Cape Cod. When Larry learns that Bradley is also staying at this site, he becomes immediately more concerned and agrees to work with Jenny. Her father had hired Sam Henry, a well-known deprogrammer who was known as “Black Lightning.”

With Black Lightning in charge, a rescue is planned for Josh and Bradley. Along the way, a few others join the group, and Larry is upset to learn that getting Josh out is the main objective since getting both out might be impossible. Although Jenny had visited Josh in the past, it was known that none of the members were ever allowed to be alone. But, although nothing had been proven, Larry was concerned that a young man they had briefly met, who had recently been found dead, had “not” committed suicide, but had been found by two members of the cult who had been trying to take him back! Now, there was a need to not only get Josh and Bradley to travel together, but to get them both away from the ashram! A difficult task...

I was completely caught off-guard with the ending and think you will be also! Mark Zvonkovic’s When Mermaids Sing, takes reader into an insightful, introspective look, at ourselves, our lives, and a consideration of what so many are searching for from life. Personally, I enjoyed the look back into my own memories of those times when there was always some group of young people, selling flowers, or whatever, as you traveled, who invited you to accept their handouts about their lives. Whether or not, you have those memories, you will certainly be taken into the time period and the experience. Enjoy the time spent there during the 70s in America’s northeast! I did!

G. A. Bixler

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Larry Brown's musings about life as he observes it are insightful, humorous and often jaded. Outwardly, the protagonist of Mark Zvonkovic's gently written novel "When Mermaids Sing" is a pleasant, unassuming Medford, PA high school English teacher who tries to get along with everyone and avoid conflicts.

He often feels manipulated by the requirements of his teaching job and the endless expectations of his parents and his girl friend Millie. Brown's parents, both college teachers, expect him to play a role in their world, while Millie--an actress who might be cheating on him--expects him to make dutiful appearances in her social and family life. At work, where he may not really be happy, he's hoping to be granted tenure. And, his cousin Bradley has joined a cult and might have lost himself in the addictive peace it provides.

Brown can ponder the humor and the irony of such realities because he has a "cure." He copes with the chaos of his job and his relationships by retreating into memories of the halcyon summer days of his youth at a Cape Cod vacation house with his siblings and cousins. Those were the best years of his life. The present cannot compete with them. He doesn't want it to.

Henry David Thoreau once said of Cape Cod's Outer Beach, "A man may stand there and put all America behind him." Likewise, Brown retreats to the house of his youth to put all of life's troubling challenges behind him.

While making an obligatory appearance at his father's annual party for freshmen college students, Brown meets a personable young woman named Jenny with a strong aversion to cults. Her brother Josh has joined the charismatic Path to God, the same group to which Bradley as sworn allegiance, if not his soul.

Jenny complains that Josh has repudiated their father as Satan and "become a different person." A psychiatrist at the party remarks that the sudden personality change exhibited by cult members is due to brainwashing, not hypnosis. This, and the lack of fences and armed guards at an ashram, make it difficult for families to intervene.

Brown vacillates about the difference between the freedom to choose a path others don't agree with and losing one's freedom through brainwashing and choosing the same path. Jenny's family is no longer splitting hairs. They've engaged the services of a well-known deprogrammer to help them extract Josh from the Cape Cod ashram even though everyone involved might end up being charged with kidnapping.

When Jenny points out that Bradley and Josh are together at the same place and enlists Brown's help, he can no longer ignore the issue as a mere philosophical topic for debate.

Will Brown help Jenny, Bradley and Josh? He would rather not, because if he does, he will have to admit there's more involved here than the rescue of two impressionable young people from the brainwashing of a cult. He will finally have to take a stand on something and answer a lingering question. Is escaping life by running away to a cult different than running away to the past?

The title of Zvonkovic's carefully written novel is suggested by a line from John Donne's playful "Go and Catch A Falling Star." Catching falling stars and hearing mermaids singing are, in Donne's thinking, rather unlikely events. Readers of "When Mermaids Sing" may wonder whether substantive change in Larry Brown is also unlikely. As literary fiction, the story relies heavily on theme, interior monologue and a strong sense of place rather than non-stop action on its introspective journey to a powerful conclusion.

--Malcolm R. Campbell for POD Book Reviews & More

[Clayton Bye · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Mermaids Sing
by Mark Zvonkovic
iUniverse, Sep 2009
ISBN 978-1-4401-6717-1
Trade Paperback
239 pages
Fiction

Larry Brown is an insecure intellectual who trends toward narcissism. However, when he can pull himself out of his internal world to participate actively with those around him he often has something interesting or revealing to say. And his complicated character is not so hard to understand when you consider he’s an untenured high school English teacher, while his parents are both college professors; his girlfriend is a complete narcissist who’s not only stepping out on Larry but usually treats him as a non-entity; and his only real friend is a “let’s live in the moment and have a great time” college buddy who teaches at the same school as Larry.

Attending one of his father’s annual parties, Larry meets Jenny. The girl, as it turns out, has a brother who has joined a cult called The Path to God, run by a mysterious figure named Misha. She’s planning to get him out.

When Mermaids Sing is set in the early 1970′s, before people had much experience with cults. Jenny’s father has hired a de-programmer to extract her brother, Josh. The fellow they’ve chosen is known as Black Lightning to the cult and is a man facing jail time for two previous rescues or “kidnappings.”

Larry discovers his cousin Bradley is involved with the same cult, so he and his college buddy, Hal, decide to join the operation. What follows shakes Larry to the core, affecting his relationship with the girlfriend, Millie; forcing himself to see the world in a different light; and destroying forever cherished memories of childhood as being false or, more truthfully, frozen moments that have virtually nothing to do with who those people are today.

You see, Misha is a state not a person, and Bradley is the only cult member who has ever reached Misha. Larry, in discussion with Bradley, is told that the cousin has heard the mermaid’s song just before reaching the absolute consciousness or state of bliss the cultists seek. The comment is a reference to T. S. Elliot’s mermaid’s song, which is heard when one is drowning. Larry becomes quite aware that his cousin could, in effect, be drowning (losing his life), and there’s nothing he can do about it.

Is Bradley drowning, plummeting toward suicide (as Larry fears)? We never find out, and it seems that it doesn’t matter: Bradley is no longer the person, the friend and cousin, he once was, and Larry has absolutely no influence or place in his life. For a person as narcissistic as Larry, such an understanding is a revelation with far-reaching consequences that literally force him to redefine the world and his place in it.

Mark Zvonkovic’s When Mermaids Sing is an interesting look at a time when the world was changing on an almost daily basis. As most of the story takes place within the ivy halls of America, we get to see some of these changes discussed or at least displayed. And a few characters illustrate the dangerous depths to which such ideas can bring a person. Choosing a self-centred character as narrator may turn some readers off, but Zvonkovic’s choice is actually quite brilliant: who better to study the great challenges represented by such a rapidly changing America?

If you enjoy literary experiments or interesting character studies, When Mermaids Sing is a book you should enjoy.

Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye 2010

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A newer updated version of "When Mermaids Sing" is currently up for re-release under the title "The Narrows". That is the version I have just read. I enjoyed the story and thought the author's writing kept me going even when I wasn't clear exactly what the point was he was trying to convey. I found myself identifying with the narrator, Larry Brown, because he also seemed to struggle with how he should feel about his cousin Bradley and the cult. I wasn't really sure whether the author was trying to warn against cult indoctrination or defend it. Maybe that was intentional.

I would definitely read other books by this author and would recommend "The Narrows" as a though provoking read.

[Joann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of cult novels, so this one appealed to me based on the description. I found it a little scattered and while I appreciated the back stories of the families, it was too much detail and "in the weeds" detracting from the cult removal aspect that I was drawn to. Very descriptive writing, I felt like I really knew everyone, but at the same time would have preferred more focus on the main events to keep things going. Thankful for the ARC!

[Louise Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very interesting book about a subject which is so mysterious yet so fascinating - cults. How people become entrapped within a cult, how they are eventually extracted - these are situations and concepts which are, fortunately, so mysterious to many readers. At time the book was a bit hard to follow and had a complexity which made it slightly less enjoyable to read but it is worth sticking with it.

[Andrea Love · Rating 2 out of 5]

When Mermaids Sing is a narrative of the protagonist, Larry, during his early adult years. Larry seems to be caught in the ebb and pull of the people that surround him, while demonstrating an inability to feel passion about anything, content to drift along and reminisce about his idyllic childhood spent with his cousins.

Larry is the classically described middle child. Both of his parents are college professors, his father a professor of literature and his mother a professor of French history. He in romantically involved with a shallow, unfaithful college student. He works as a high school English teacher, mostly because it was easy to get and easy to keep. His older sister seems driven and passionate in her work, while his younger sister is as charmingly petulant as a pre-teen can be. He is miserable and awkward in all aspects of his life and spends an inordinate amount of time reflecting on how life is swirling around him and people are making progress while he treads water unsure of which direction to go.

Central to his contemplation is the time he spent as an adolescent with his family on Cape Cod. His descriptions begin as romantic and surreal, but eventually begin to take on shades of reality, especially his relationship with his cousin Bradley. Bradley is described as independent and strong-willed at the beginning, but by books end, we learn that Bradley had some serious emotional and behavioral difficulties during childhood that necessitated weekly visits to a psychiatrist. Bradley’s admirable work with the migrant farmers on the West Coast, is revealed to really be involvement in the counter-culture movement and drug use. This may be why Larry does not seem to be surprised when he learns that Bradley is reportedly involved with a cult in the area.

It is during a recovery attempt by a brainwashing deprogrammer that Larry is finally able to speak with Bradley and try to understand what it is that he has been searching for all of these years. Larry leaves the encounter with a more grounded view of his cousin and more realistic recollections from his childhood. No longer is he chasing some amorphous ideal, just outside of his grasp. He finally ends his relationship with his emotionally abusive girlfriend. However, the passion is still lacking in his life, as evidenced by his subdued reaction to being awarded a tenured teaching contract at the school where he teaches.

This is a well written book, with great attention to grammar and a diverse vocabulary. The story was interesting and rich with detail, but the lead in from the dust jacket is misleadingly focused on an exploration of cults, rather than the exploration of Larry’s struggle for identity that is central to the story.