One Vacant Chair

Rating:
Summary: Funny and wise
Review: An insightful writer with a dry, humorous edge, Coomer divides his time and his book settings between Texas and Maine. His latest novel is firmly rooted in his Texas homeland, with a brief, powerful excursion to Scotland.

The book opens with an antic, visual scene, which introduces all of the characters, quickly drawn in bold, precise strokes. The Huttons have gathered for a memorial service for the family's crotchety matriarch. The setting is a sun-blasted field, filled with chairs all carried from a house filled with little else in the way of furniture. And when all the chairs are brought to the field, "the house was empty of chairs, and yet still full of them." Aunt Edna, an unmarried school-cafeteria worker who cared for her dying mother for 20 years in that house, is an artist who paints only chairs, an eccentricity no one questions. "Aunt Edna liked to draw and paint chairs in the same way that my father liked to read books about the Civil War, or Aunt Margaret liked to play charades."

The narrator, looking back on that summer, is her niece, Sarah, whose marriage is reeling from the blow of her husband's infidelity. "We were two fat women, eighteen years apart, a chair artist and a designer of Christmas ornaments, who only knew we had troubles and a hot summer to get through." Sarah writes her story with the benefit of hindsight, so we know from the first that Aunt Edna has died and her paintings now hang in museums. How these events come about are two mysteries in a story full of revelations, small and large, about life, love and hard choices.

Gathering for the reading of the matriarch's will, the Hutton family is shocked to hear that the old lady wanted her ashes scattered in Scotland, a place she had no ties to and had only seen in a large picture book. Texans, if the Huttons are any example, can't see why anyone would want to travel more than a state or two away anyhow. But Aunt Edna is adamant and Sarah, her life in limbo, decides to stay with her aunt and accompany her to Scotland.

Their sojourn together, in the house and on the trip, is one of new beginnings - Sarah revives her art career from the doldrums of successful ornament design, and Aunt Edna accepts a marriage proposal from an old friend, a blind, black, chair repairer. Scotland gives both women a jolt. Its gray stone, heavy sky, and magnificent age are the antithesis of Texas. It seems a place at once alien and enfolding and apart from ordinary life. As they travel, doling out spoonfuls of Grandma and Grandpa's ashes in castle gardens, Aunt Edna's physical decline becomes obvious. Her pithy, impatient advice to her niece - mostly in the form of admonishment - takes on new urgency and a greater aura of wisdom.

Coomer's exploration of the mistakes and lessons of life, the crisp, often humorous debates on love, forgiveness and family, are saved from the dangers of preachiness or cliché by the quality of his writing and by the hindsight structure of the narrative. It's natural that Sarah, after all is said and done, gives greater weight to her dead aunt's wisdom. And Coomer's characters have complexities rather than quirks. Their talk arises from the weight of their hearts. As in previous novels, Coomer explores circumstances of personal epiphany occurring in the course of ordinary life, and makes the reader feel the better for the journey.

Rating:
Summary: Coomer's books always moving
Review: From The Loop, to Apologizing To Dogs, to Beachcombing For A Shipwrecked God, and now One Vacant Chair, I always finde Joe Coomer's books engaging, witty, moving and lyrical. It's the writing that makes them so, a voice at once sophisticated and personal. His latest effort concerns a woman, Aunt Edna, who, beyond a career as an elementary school cafeteria worker, paints portraits of chairs. The story is narrated by her niece, who accompanies her on a trip from Fort Worth, Texas to Scotland, where they spread Aunt Edna's mother's ashes. This is a story of two women which takes on the classic storyline of mentor and student, but by the time the novel is finished these roles fall apart, become anything but typical. Any author who can make me laugh and cry within the space of one page makes me want to pass on the good word.

Rating:
Summary: Coomer's books always moving
Review: Just read this great book, parts of it are very funny, but this book will take you through the whole range of emotions.

Rating:
Summary: Vivid, funny, yet tugs at your heart
Review: Most readers will find themselves and the people they love and hate in Joe Coomer's book, One Vacant Chair. Aside from the story itself, this book's greatest strength is in its vivid descriptions. Coomer captures nuances artfully, with similes and metaphors like "his coal black toupee fit his head like a single sock drying on a tin mailbox" and "I'd worn a pale yellow blouse and skirt...and now I looked like a Neiman-Marcus sack that had been dragged ostentatiously around the rest of the mall, stuffed with items from Women's Tall & Oversize, crumpled into an ice-cream chair at the food court, and dipped into a fountain while searching for pennies to throw. I know that's a lot for a wrinkled yellow skirt and blouse to acknowledge but it was all there." This novel captures the agony of life decisions pertaining to becoming a full-time caretaker and accepting what family members can and cannot do for family members with long-term illnesses - especially from a distance. Coomer's gentle descriptions of Aunt Edna's paintings, color, and lunchladies are marvelous. On top of all of this, the book tells a solid story about two women at turning points in their lives who embark upon an adventure. I'm going to have to read Coomer's other books.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Read
Review: This book works on so many different levels. It's a great read that's hard to put down once you start. It has wonderfully fleshed out characters who come to life on the page. The themes are compelling, and Coomer handles them with a strong sense of humor and sensitivity. The discussion of art technique adds another interesting dimension. All in all, I loved this book!

Rating:
Summary: A Great Read
Review: This book works on so many different levels. It's a great read that's hard to put down once you start. It has wonderfully fleshed out characters who come to life on the page. The themes are compelling, and Coomer handles them with a strong sense of humor and sensitivity. The discussion of art technique adds another interesting dimension. All in all, I loved this book!