Top Shelf for May 2009

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen

Part of me is tempted to sum up this book as: “What would happen if John Hodgman wrote a novel.” I don’t pay this book that complement just because it includes a chart of hobo signs and their meanings, although that did contribute. It’s mostly because I can’t come up with a comparable work of fiction to this incredibly unique debut novel that is packed with fascinating characters, complex relationships and observations about the world—not to mention just the right amount of magic. Tecumseh Sparrow Spivet, the fictional narrator whose selected works make up Reif Larsen’s stellar novel, is the kind of character you just can’t help but love. Part scientific genius, part naïve twelve-year-old boy, his maps and drawings have been published in numerous scientific journals, but he’s still at a loss to understand the complicated inner workings of the adult mind, or even the world outside of rural Montana.

One day, while mapping the process of his older sister shucking corn, T.S. receives a call from an official at the Smithsonian informing him that he’s won a prestigious award for his maps. Not boring old cartography by any means, T.S. is responsible for maps that overlay the vast network of modern highway systems onto the migratory patterns of the buffalo, maps of his father’s whiskey sipping frequency and maps of human facial movements. These works present a unique way of viewing the world, and they are incredibly beautiful (and included in the margins of the book). The only problem? The Smithsonian doesn’t know that their prize-winning cartographer is twelve. T.S. sets off on his own nonetheless, leaving behind his dysfunctional family and their Montana ranch for adventure as he heads towards the mythical East, a reversal of the traditional American route of discovery and adventure. As he “hoboes” across the Mid-west on a train, following east the exact railroad lines that carried his ancestors west, his family’s past opens up to him and to us. His mother, a scientist who essentially gave up her career to marry an uneducated rancher, seems largely ignorant of his national success. His father, who has never understood his love of maps, sees him walking towards the train with carefully packed luggage and doesn’t stop him or ask where he is going. His younger brother, Layton, was killed in a tragic accident mere months ago, and even T.S. isn’t quite sure how much of that was his fault. These family relationships are explored in the way that children explore family relationships: More questions are raised than answers given (because even a child genius can’t really understand his parents), but there’s a beautiful process of self-discovery to be found in just asking the questions.

Reading T.S.’s thoughts reminded me of hitting those first early teenage years when I began to really understand that my parents had had lives before I came into the world, and that they were defined by a lot more than I could understand. And that all those things I couldn’t quite understand were somehow a part of me, too. Larsen captures perfectly the heady feeling of discovery, not of the natural world, but the complicated social one, and T.S. Spivet is a character that I believed in completely. And loved completely. Which is not to say that this is a completely serious novel—it’s laugh-out-loud funny, too (thus the inescapable John Hodgman comparison), making it a joy to read.

What really sets this book apart, though, are the intricate drawings and maps done in the author’s own hand. Filling the margins of almost every page, these show us T.S.’s work and give our narrator’s often-hilarious reflections on the strange things that happen to him as he crosses the country and after he reaches Washington, D.C. More than mere textual notes, they are themselves a part of the story, and they add a depth to this book that elevates it from good fiction to something completely extraordinary. The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet is truly a gem, and I urge everyone to come to BookPeople on Wednesday May 13, pick up a copy and meet this phenomenal new author. This is one you don’t want to miss.