Rookery Blues

by Jon Hassler

Book Overview

Rookery State College in the late 1960s is an academic backwater if ever there was one--until the Icejam Quintet is born. With Leland Edwards on piano, Neil Novotny on clarinet, Victor Dash on drums,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345406419
• ISBN13: 9780345406415
• Release Date: August 1996
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 484 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.1" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Laugh? I thought I'd die!

This is the eighth Hassler book I have read, and while it is different from some of his others, there is so much funny in the book my wife told me to go to another room to read since I was helplessly laughing aloud so very often. There is nothing theological about this book, and in fact nothing judgmental (I thought there could have been at least some indication of non-approval of the adultery), but nevertheless one can't help but be caught up in the zany story. Jon Hassler kind of suggests to me a male Anne Tyler.

Dickensesque

ROOKERY BLUES revolves around the experiences of the Icejam Quintet during the `60s at Rookery State College: Leland Edwards on piano, Neil Novotny on clarinet, Victor Dash on drums, Connor on bass, and Peggy Benoit, saxophonist and singer. The musicians are professors and instructors at the college. Each of them has a story line. The beautiful Peggy Benoit is taken with alcoholic Connor. She's kind of a groupie, being more enamored of Connor's reputation as an artist than the man. I found Neil Novotny, who plays clarinet, the most interesting character, because he gives Hassler an opportunity to satirize beginning novelists (and I imagine what he remembers about the experience himself). My favorite Hassler book is STAGGERFORD in which Hassler satirizes the political and personal machinations that occur in a high school setting. As a twenty-year teacher, I found those more interesting than the story line. I also had fun trying to pick out any similarities to the two colleges Hassler taught at: Brainerd Community College and St. John's (just outside St. Cloud, Minnesota). There's an ice fishing scene which seems to point at the little lake right next to St. John's. The other character I found intriguing was Victor Dash, the faculty union representative. Most of the teachers involved find labor negotiations beneath themselves; Dash revels in the matter, would like nothing better than to strike.Hassler is a Dickensesque writer, totally immersing us in this academic setting. Major characters and minor characters are given the same careful attention to detail. You can't lose with ROOKERY BLUES.

A real chuckle for anyone in academia

Oh, to be in Bemidji or anyplace north of the Continental Divide (the one in Minnesota). This book is especially enjoyable for those who have spent their formative years growing up in the frozen environs depicted in Hassler's novels. Of course, the suits in Administration might be offended by Hassler's satire, but for most of us this book is loaded with great humor - watching the humanities chair pursue a garbage truck to recover a revealing photo or learning how to calm down a lustful golden retreiver. Even better, we learn how not to improve a student's taste in poetry! After spending the summer grading college entrance essays, this book provided me some real comic relief.

Gentle and heart-warming character study

When most books feature disposable or interchangeable characters, it is a wonderful treat to read a book with people you can care about. To read fiction is to enter someone else's world and Hassler unerringly recreates such a vision in his wintery academic community. Without violence or bloodshed, he is able to create a gripping story of ordinary people in the grip of life's passion and circumstances. A great book.

Characters not plot

I would guess that "Rookery Blues" is one of the best pieces of writing of Jon Hassler's. Hassler is one of few authors who are able to write an interesting story about people's lifes without the need of an over-exaggerated plot. His characters are marvellously developed such that the reader takes great interest in what happens to them (they are every-day people). Well-written. Funny.