The Man Who Owned Vermont

A friend who had read this book back in college recommended it to me based on my love for good old-fashioned literature. It did not disappoint. The story isn't unique -- a young man skulks out of his marriage when the going gets tough and throws himself into his career, where he discovers his loneliness -- but the telling is simultaneously refreshing and familiar. I suggest this book to anyone who loved To Kill a Mockingbird, and books of that genre.

This is one of the most underrated novels in the past decade. Not only was it entertaining but it reshaped my own life as well. The story had a surrealism to it that cannot be described. Even though I read the book about five years ago I still think about the characters and wonder if their marriage is still holding up. You know you read something great when memories of the book still arise from time to time.

Bret Lott stands out as a storyteller because he writes about people who could be your next door neighbors enduring things that could actually happen to you or someone you know. And his characters handle things just as awkwardly as you & I would as well. But they are like the characters of Anne Tyler and Elizabeth Berg--not easily forgotten. I love an author who really brings his characters into a full three dimension life. Oh, and don't forget your kleenex when you read this.

Novels so frequently chronicle the lives of the writer, the artist, or the high powered mover and shaker. "Ordinary people" tend to be cariciatures, people the author moved away from to get an MFA or people whose limitations define the author's hidden text in would-be hilarious fashion. One imagines the potential inherent in the as-yet-unexplored life of middle class small town and suburban folks, freed of treacle, of outdated stereotype, of "realistically" implausible dialogue, or fractured postcard home truths by writers who feel themselves somehow above the fray of tract homes and work-a-day jobs.The Man Who Owned Vermont stands out for its characterizations of a 20something man whose job is distributing RC Cola to markets. He's recently separated, and the plot is driven by the dilemmae of his marital problems. The dialogue, the characterizations, and the situations are plausible, workable, and real as life. Although an overt theme seems to be unfashionable these days, Mr. Lott adopts as one theme of this work the power of language and words. The protagonist, though intelligent and reasonably articulate, is, for reasons explained in the story, nearly incapable of any real insight into his own feelings or needs. Lott effectively uses the "supporting characters" as semaphore signals to the reader and to our narrator of what is really going on in his life. Unlike the similar device in Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier, we do not come to mistrust the narrative voice of the clueless narrator. Lott's protagonist is anything but clueless, and, thank heaven, he does not babble or mutter on about obscure lit references like a grad seminar short story hero. Through patient story-telling, we come to understand that the narrator's emotional disconnection, and its very real effects on his very real life, *is* not only the character, but also the "real" story. The result is neither played for pathos or humor, but instead the work achieves a quiet, almost meditative, small reflection on the nature of language and story. The book is subtle, is well worked, and capably written.Surprisingly, the part of the work that satisfies least is the way in which the denouemont is tied together after two disparate sequential events create a sort of twin climax. The ending seems slightly forced, but the overall effect of the work is that it is believable, very real, and about not only ideas, but also people.If you like small films which use a realistic plot to tell a subtle story, like You Can Count on Me or The Winslow Boy, you'll be apt to like this small book which uses a decent but distracted man to make some interesting points.

I was immediately drawn into this story and identified with the main character. Wonderfully written. Rick was overcome with grief and guilt over losing his unborn child and we learned his thinking, and felt his emotions,as he coped. But I ask you, Mr. Lott, did he have to get in bed naked with another woman and very nearly make love to her in order figure out that he still loved his wife? How do you think this made the other woman, who was a fine person, feel? I would think Rick would be even more guilt-ridden because, at the end of the book, he lists the things he will now talk with his wife about, and this other woman isn't on the list! Great writing but I'm not so sure about the ending.