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Praise from The Independent While the title signals the disaster to come in this skillfully wrought tale of an 11-year old boy who writes a Passion play for his parochial school, the intriguing opening line makes that fate unmistakably clear. "No doubt there are still residents of East Islip, Long Island, who'll remember having heard of young Danny Burke and his infamous Easter play." Like many a well-told tale, however, knowing what happens is not as important as knowing how and when. A compelling feature of successful fiction where the outcome is certain at the start is the tension created between a foreboding sense of the inevitable and an ambivalent desire to see it both prevented and carried out. In The Beginning of Calamities Tom House keeps the tension taut by artfully shifting points of view and interweaving pathos and humor. The result is a tale about deep distress, misery, loss and lasting affliction that is also laugh-out-loud-funny. For sure, House has got the world of fifth-grade pre-pubescents down pat. That some of the kids' pranks are hilarious as well as cruel only makes young Danny's slow but implacable descent from antic to insane more poignant. Intelligent, creative, an incredibly shy, stuttering misfit, Danny increasingly becomes imbued with the spirit of The Life of Jesus at the same time that he conjures up a brown-skinned fantasy friend, called Arram, to serve as an outlet for his homoerotic impulses. The story, which House indicates is partly autobiographical, draws not only on memories of Catholic school but also, perhaps, on tales House has heard in the course of his 15 years as a bartender at The Swamp (now The Star Room). At times a bit too extensive in Gospel quotations, a device that measures the degree of Danny's identification with Jesus, and that foreshadows the bizarre parallels that develop between their lives, The Beginning of Calamities makes for enjoyable reading, especially the riotous sections that recall the wacky world of the old television series, "Welcome Back Kotter.” Young fifth-grade teacher, Elizabeth Kaigh, dreams of making her mark with Danny's play, but as she soon discovers, she has only the oddball kids to work with. Nonetheless she goes full steam ahead, including giving the part of the narrator to lisping, loud-volume Patty: "JETHUTH WATH LED THROUGH THE DARK THTREETH OF JERUTHALEM." An inexperienced teacher among the older, critical, straitlaced nuns, Liz does care about her bright and talented playwright, but she also wants to advance her standing at the school and so pushes to take charge of the production. Of course, chaos ensues: bathrobe-clad apostles will dash across the stage, dragging trees with them, guards in hot pursuit will cry out, "Mush's and Move it's," street lingo will find its way into the Gospel passages, and the bullies will start taking their crucifixion duties seriously. The irony will be the extent to which, unknown to anyone, young Danny has already taken his Messiah complex full throttle. House maintains an admirable balance between farce and tragedy, shifting perspectives, so that reader sympathy is extended to those who earlier did not seem to deserve it -- to Danny's working-class mother, for example, who is shown to be a victim of domestic life as much as a vulgar, hair-teased nightmare to her youngest son. The father is an unseen threatening presence, which may explain in part why Danny seeks the heavenly version. This is a fine first novel, clever and moving. By using italics to represent his characters' stream of consciousness, and then setting these inner reflections alongside dialogue and contrasting points of view, House effects a story that is sensitive, ironic, sad and at times a howling hoot. by Joan Baum The Independent June 11, 2003 |