Brief Reviews: Van Boyle by Nathan Leslie
Reviewed by Valerie Fox
Nathan Leslie’s latest novel, Van Boyle, traces the descent and ascent of a professional baseball player. Van is living rough, struggling and ill. Beginning here, at age 69. the novel proceeds backwards through the years of his life. Short chapters representing each year highlight key life events, as well as questions connected to fate and family secrets. As we gradually learn how Van came to be so driven yet detached, we may well ask: What if Van hadn’t sustained the career-ending injury? What if he’d had a better marriage? What if he’d stayed in college?
Leslie’s lyrical prose subtly adds to the dimensions and sensitivity of the protagonist. Age 63 Van feels “too old for this patchwork life.” We get a visceral sense of Van’s dreams and nightmares as well as hints of what is buried too deeply for him perhaps even to remember. One such passage is the unforgettable and harrowing dream in the age 62 chapter.
Interspersed with the age-numbered chapters (69, 68, 67, etc.) are vignettes and reflections clearly set off with titles such as “The Boat” and “The Time Van Hissed at a Woman.” Within the rush of the years, these chapters often act as still points. We get a sense in them of Van being self aware and vulnerable. In “The Time Van Wept in the Tub, Part 3,” he says, “I was a shabby father.” And “I was completely disconnected. I was not the man I wanted to be.”
Van wants to be a great ballplayer, to be somebody. There are echoes in Van of Terry, Brando’s boxer in Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront, who famously says: “I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody…” When faced with moral questions, Van tries to do what’s right. But when faced with everyday opportunities to do right by himself, Van balks or runs. His downfall is at once puzzling and inevitable, as well as hard to look away from.
Learn more
- Leslie’s website: www.nathanleslie.net
- Maryland Literary Review (edited by Leslie): www.marylandliteraryreview.com