Dale Stahl, my office mate, basketball coach, AP economics teacher and all-round good guy, sent this e-mail one recent evening.
"I just finished a most enjoyable novel, Headlong, by Michael Frayn, and as I began to think back over the books I have read, I realized that Headlong was the perfect end to a remarkable string of entertaining novels I have been fortunate to lay my hands on recently.
"Headlong was the 20-year tawny served at the end of a sumptuous six course, chef's tasting menu of literary adventures.
"Like a true gourmet appetizer, so good it could stand alone and yet so intriguing the palate is primed to see what culinary delight the chef will prepare next, the first book in my series was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
"I know, I realize the Harry Potter series is aimed at kids, but I am hopelessly hooked.
"J. K. Rowling manages to combine a wonderful fantasy world, traditional themes of good versus evil, and characters that are maturing and facing the ordinary traumas of adolescence, all in a plot that rivals any good mystery/suspense novel.
"When finished, I was ready for more, although I know it will be a long wait yet. (Yes, that will be me, the rather large man budging in line in front of the third grader to be first to get a copy of the next book.)
"Having whetted my appetite, I moved on to course number two, the wonderfully complex and multi-layered A Widow For One Year by John Irving.
"Irving is one of my favorite authors. His characters are quirky and their adventures unique, yet I have gained an appreciation of the overall human condition from his works.
"A Widow For One Year features a woman author and gives us a peek into the craft of writing. One of the central themes of the book is the difficulty of writing a story that is not based on the author's personal experience. We are treated to the thought process of a first rate novelist.
"This book takes us through a family's obsession over the deaths of two sons, the pursuit of fulfilling sexual relationships, the sordid liaisons of Amsterdam's red light district, and the drive to establish a contented nuclear family. Only one author, John Irving, could combine these disparate elements to create such synergy.
"After the complexity and far-flung adventures of the previous two works, I was ready for a taste of old fashioned comfort food.
"My next two novels each featured small town characters struggling to make the best of their life situations. While the theme was familiar, the authors' genius lay in their ability to create characters that readers care about. Each novel left me looking at the world around me differently, wondering what secret hopes, dreams, disappointments, and tragedies were concealed behind the small talk and polite interactions of society.
"Plainsong, by Kent Haruf, is set in the small town of Holt, Colorado. The author strips his prose to the bone, perhaps to fit the wind hardened land of the book's setting.
"The characters include a school teacher trying to raise his sons while his wife battles depression, a young girl who finds herself pregnant, the single female teacher she turns to for help, and the aging bachelor farmers whose routine is forever changed form the core of this novel. Small town life is perfectly exposed here, as is the underlying drive for happiness in a world of limited options.
"Similarly, Amy and Isabelle, by Elizabeth Strout, are a mother and daughter who want more than life has offered them thus far.
"Isabelle is the boss's secretary in a factory, and Amy, a high school student, is working at the plant for the summer. The small interactions, disappointments, and dreams that Isabelle harbors are poignantly simple, and unknown to the daughter who thinks her Mom is hopeless.
"The fantasy Isabelle creates over her middle-aged boss Avery, for example, seems pathetic to an outsider, but the author makes it clear it is everything to Isabelle. The story also features the emergence of Amy as she begins to explore her own interests and form her own dreams with the aid of an unscrupulous male teacher.
"I was simply fascinated by the complex relationships, framed by the inability of the characters to communicate and reach out to one another.
"The theme of inability to communicate leading to tragic consequences continued on my literary menu with The House of Sand and Fog, by Andre Dubus III.
"Again, this novel features ordinary characters, people you can imagine meeting or seeing around town, whose simple self-interest intertwines them in a tragic web of miscommunication and violence. A cop, a house cleaner, and an Iranian immigrant family interact in a drama centered on the ownership of a small house.
"Each has a dream for future happiness that appears mutually exclusive. The great thing about this book is that each party has a legitimate claim, but none is willing or able to see the view of the other. The clash of cultures is well displayed, and as the tension builds, the reader develops the urge to act as intermediary before it is too late.
"The theme of mystery and suspense rounded out my literary feast with the fabulous A Small Death in Lisbon by Robert Wilson.
"This novel is set in Portugal. A Portuguese colleague tells me that the author has captured the culture perfectly. The death of a young girl in modern Portugal starts a recently widowed detective on an investigation that will take him through the highest levels of society, as well as the history of that country and Europe in general, beginning with World War II.
"The plotting is immaculate, the twin stories of wartime Portugal and modern Portugal equally fascinating, and the disparate webs are woven together in a superb finish with nary a loose end. I found myself fascinated by the ring of truth present in the historic dealing of the Nazis, and the long-term ramifications for those who crossed their path.
"Finally, I conclude with Headlong, in which historical accuracy again lends an intriguing, thought provoking background for a modern suspense story.
"The main character, Marti Clay, is an ordinary academic seeking more from life than his dry subject, nominalism. While on sabbatical in the country, he and his wife, an art history and religious iconography specialist, are invited to the neighbor's for dinner. During the course of the evening, the neighbors ask their guests to assess the potential value of some old paintings. While looking at the works, Martin believes he has discovered one of the world's great, lost art treasures, a painting by Pieter Bruegel.
"He instantly forms a plan to take ownership of the painting without revealing its value to the neighbor. What follows is his attempt to grab the brass ring he believes lies before him, his struggle to overcome the ordinary sensibilities that have framed his life, and the intricate research involved in proving the authenticity of a work of art.
"Nothing goes as planned, and his continued surprise at the circumstances he finds himself are simultaneously hilarious and tragic. It all kept me desperate to find out what happens next.
"Furthermore, the history of the Netherlands, the Roman Church, and the impact of these events on the art of the day are discussed in fascinating detail throughout. As we sat in church on Sunday, I read the words of the Lutheran service with a new respect.
"Author Frayn spins a tale of death and woe to those who were first to turn away from the established Church in the 1500's. The Inquisition, and the suffering of those labeled heretics gave me pause as our sleepy congregation muttered the words printed in the book.
"The common theme I noticed in these novels was the struggle of ordinary people to make the most of their lives.
"This effort occurs daily, and I often fail to remember that those around me are silently engaged in the same battle. It is the genius of the authors of these novels that they made this shared endeavor clear to me, and allow me to discover the common humanity that bonds us across cultures and throughout time." [If Dale keeps writing theme-based essays like that I'll just turn over these pages to him and do spell checks. Those St. Olaf English and writing classes have really paid off. He should drop his profs a note of thanks - as we all should to those teachers we recognize as valuable in our lives.]
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