2020-10-20
In this debut novel, a veteran haunted by visions attempts to get on the right track in a hippie mountain town.
United States Army Sgt. Coot Friedman—who is, according to his Department of Veterans Affairs doctor, a “borderline alcoholic with a marked case of PTSD” from his tours in Iraq and Afghanistan—has just returned to his hometown in the Hudson Valley. The town sits beneath the local mountain, Joppenbergh, which holds a spiritual and symbolic significance to the veteran/hunter/poet: “To say that it’s a second home to me is to say nothing. It’s my place of salvation, my temple…I’m at peace when I roam through its world of mist, rocky woods, overhung shelves of ancient stone, man-made and forbidding mines, red fox, deer, deer ticks, bears, sometimes in close proximity.” After injuring himself during a hunting accident, Coot meets a midwife’s assistant named Margaret. He does his best to be a good boyfriend—and, before long, husband and father—but his tendency to see ghosts and behave erratically gets him into trouble. When the apparition of a dead skier—who acts as Coot’s spirit guide —tells the vet about a buried treasure from the town’s founding, it seems like the perfect means to provide for his family. But to find it Coot will have to navigate a cast of local characters (both living and dead), a local murder, and a visit from the Department of Homeland Security. Morganstern’s prose is vivid and surreal, particularly when describing Coot’s frequent visionary escapades: “The mushrooms and the elves and cans slowly slid to the right, making way for the town band marching in disorderly ranks from the left. A cymbal crash, honking trombones, the contingent of drums, the shrill arpeggios of a flute, the muffled guitar, ‘honk, toot, bang, crash, strum!’ ” Despite the premise, the book does not come off as cartoonish or self-satisfied. Rather, the author is invested in detailing Coot’s traumas and demonstrating the ways in which they rule his life. It’s a rambling novel that is occasionally disorienting, but the well-drawn characters and magic-tinged environment will be enough to keep readers engrossed. And the ending is unexpectedly rewarding.
A trippy but emotionally resonant tale about acclimating to life after war.
