Lehrer's 'Eureka'
Cheryl Unruh
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
NOVELISTS DIG into their personal histories, their own lives, to produce fiction.
Traces of the author often show up in his or her work, sometimes in content, sometimes in setting.
“To know I’m from Kansas, all you have to do is read my last two books,” Jim Lehrer said.
His most recent novels are “Eureka,” and “Oh, Johnny.” The latter just hit the bookshelves in March.
Jim Lehrer is a native of Wichita. He’s written 22 books, he said, 19 novels. When he’s not visiting Kansas or some other place, it’s his face you see on the PBS program “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.”
Last month Lehrer spoke at the Friends of the Plains dinner at Emporia’s Granada Theatre.
He told us about a recent visit with National Public Radio’s Diane Rhem, in which she asked if he were a Jayhawk. “I’m a sunflower,” he responded.
And then he sang to her and her crew, as he did to us at the Granada, part of Mack David’s song, “Sunflower:” “I was born in Kansas, I was bred in Kansas, and when I get married I’ll be wed in Kansas… .”
I purchased Lehrer’s novel “Eureka.” And I smiled all the way through. If you’re a sunflower from the Sunflower State, there’s no way you can miss the Kansas connection.
The book is set in Kansas and the protagonist is Otis Girard Halstead. His wife’s maiden name is Winfield. The last name of his psychiatrist is Tonganoxie. Should I go on? He does.
There are characters named Wetmore, Canton, Caldwell, Overbrook, Alma Stockton, Sylvia Sterling, Dr. Madison Severy. He brings in people named Lakin, Quinter, Garnett, Lucas, Allen, Humboldt and Sublette.
And Lehrer peels names of towns off the Kansas map and puts them wherever he wants; Eureka is not in Greenwood County. Location-wise, size-wise, and (formerly) Menninger’s-wise, that town is more like Topeka.
Eureka is where protagonist Otis Halstead lives. Halstead is the CEO of Kansas Central Fire and Casualty. (That name is another personal touch; Lehrer’s parents once owned a bus company called Kansas Central Lines.)
The book begins with Otis Halstead, weeks before his 60th birthday, purchasing a cast-iron toy fire truck for $12,500. Halstead told his wife, “I wanted one of those for Christmas when I was five-years-old. I wanted it so badly it gave me diarrhea.”
During Halstead’s mid-life crisis, he also picks up a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun, a Kansas City Chiefs football helmet, and a 1952 Cushman Pacemaker motor scooter.
He was tripping back in time, but then none of us live our lives in a linear fashion. Our minds bounce all over the place; we can project ourselves into the future and often our memories swoop back 20, 30, 40 years.
During our most difficult moments, we often review our lives, looking for pieces of ourselves that we lost along the way.
But Halstead’s wife thinks he needs mental help and sends him to a psychiatrist. Soon a dramatic event occurs which pushes Halstead over the edge — or at least out the door. At age 59, he runs away from home on his motor scooter.
He puts the Chiefs helmet on his bald head, straps the BB gun to the scooter, stashes $5,000 cash and that toy fire truck in the scooter’s storage compartment and heads west.
He has no real plans; he’s just aiming for the Red Ryder museum in Pagosa Springs, Colo. After decades of living a joyless, meaningless life, Halstead is in search of himself.
He doesn’t make it to Colorado, but he does have quite a journey.
Jim Lehrer, in his books and in real life, easily finds his way back to Kansas. But in this novel, Lehrer makes you wonder if Otis Halstead will ever find his way home, if he’ll ever shout “Eureka!”
Cheryl Unruh can be reached at cheryl@flyoverpeople.net.
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