In the last issue I passed on Myrna Klobuchar’s offhand comment about a book called "The Last Pilgrim Ron Klug wrote from Amery, Wisconsin (just a few miles south of Sidetrack) with the suggestion
Ron’s follow up to that suggestion was the question, "Does this earn me an asterisk?" Ron added to his note that "we are former Northfielders, having lived [there] for about I sent Ron’s suggestion on to Myrna. What I got back was a book and a note. But before she replied, "Here is my entry into the ‘what could Myrna be thinking about’ contest. I believe she was referring
or something.". I described my brief efforts to find the book and asked for your help.
that perhaps Myrna meant "The Last Puritan, a 1936 novel by philosopher George
Santayana." It was, he said, the story of a man out of place in his own time because he
adhered so closely to the traditions of his New England ancestors.
Since everyone who contributes here gets an introduction as well as an asterisk, it’s only
fair that I mention that Ron is one of Reading’s involuntary subscribers. He and his wife
were mentioned in a newspaper article passed on to me by Sidetrack’s previous owner,
Henriette Johnsen. She wrote something on the clipping like, "They sound like people
who would enjoy Reading." I no longer remember what why the Klugs were news,
but I do know at least one of them is reading these pages.
12 years." (We do travel in small circles, don’t we? Six degrees of separation and all that.)
I heard from Dan Conrad. He sent an e-mail with another suggestion about which book Myrna was
recommending. He wrote:
to a novel by the Canadian author Timothy Findley titled, simply, Pilgrim. It's about a
man who claims he cannot die and is sent to an asylum where he is the patient of Carl Jung.
I thought it was one of the best books I read this year. I rarely, virtually never, think that about
modern novels."
That was indeed the book that Myrna put in my mail box at school Her note said
"Not the last apparently (Pilgrim, that is). Enjoy or pass it on."
She added, "I am probably the only person in Minnetonka who’s actually read Santayana’s
The Last Puritan in America. I like his writing." Whether the population of Minnetonka is as
narrowly read as that remains to be seen. Myrna would have a better idea of that than I. About Santayana
some other time. I had Findley’s book and recommendations from two people whose
opinions I respected. There was nothing left to do but read it.
I might well stop right here and leave you with those two glowing references. But I’m
really puzzled. I read the book and I don’t know what to make of it.
It might be a bit of fluffy science fiction with a few literary references that the intelligentsia would recognize.
Or it might be a philosophical reflection on the meaning of life and sanity. (If the main character isn’t an immortal
then he must be insane, and much of the story is set in an asylum for rich and pampered Victorians.)
It might be a sacred text about the relationship of some supernatural beings to people. It might be a political tract
promoting ethical humanism. It could be a rather silly attempt to explain the accuracy of Jung’s theory of the collective
unconscious (immortals among us to pass on human memories) or Jung’s premonitions about World War I .
Or it could be a "plea for the innate integrity of art." I literally have no clue.
The quotations above come from two pages in the last 50 of a 486-page book. They were the
first overt statements of purpose in the book that I recognized. And it was very difficult for me
to get that far. Over and over, I laid it aside only to hear the words of Myrna and Dan urging me to join
them in their enjoyment of it.
A review in that respected literary publication, USA Today was quoted on the back cover of the book.
It claimed that "Pilgrim is a spellbinding novel about truth and the intricacies of human
consciousness." Huh? Spellbinding? Hardly. Deep? Not in the waters I tested. As usual, I
expect my enjoyment to come out of my understanding, but I’m baffled. Can someone
enlighten me? I am a willing student anxious to hear more about reactions to the book and whether it
"was one of the best books" of the year. Or, if you’d like the copy Myrna gave me, ask for it.
I’ll pass it on if you’ll tell us about your experience reading it.
A Review from the Medical School at NYU
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