Just Jennifer

 Exley by Brock Clarke (Algonquin Books, October 5, 2010)

Nine-year-old Miller Le Ray lives in Watertown, NY, where Frederick Exley’s cult novel A Fan’s Note (a fictional memoir) is set.  Miller witnessed an argument his parents had, ending with his father driving off shouting back “Maybe I should go to Iraq too.”  Miller hasn’t heard from his father since and becomes convinced that Tom has returned from Iraq and is lying in the local VA hospital in a coma.  Miller is also certain that if he is able to bring the author of Tom’s favorite book, Exley, to the VA that Tom will wake up from his coma and be well again.  Carrie, Miller’s mother, an attorney, thinks Miller, a precocious, inventive and imaginative child, has created a world where his father has returned and has turned Miller’s mental health over to a doctor whose mental health is also questionable.  The narrative is told from Miller’s point of view and from the doctor’s notes from his sessions with Miller and his observations.  There is no question that Miller is a smart, intelligent child, but also a deeply disturbed one and it soon becomes clear that Miller’s version of the truth and reality may not necessarily be so.  The story is touching as it unfolds, but Miller’s voice and his actions are a bit too grown up for a nine-year-old child and the doctor’s voice too pedantic and downright odd, and it’s curious how Carrie doesn’t pick up on doctor’s shortcomings.  As Miller’s story unfolds and the truth comes into focus, it becomes clearer where Miller’s reality lies and where Carrie’s lies as well.  Part social commentary, literary criticism and part memoir, the carefully constructive narrative will require close reading, but the payoff will be rewarding as Clarke’s satire and humor slowly emerge.