Exonians in Review - The Exeter Bulletin

Alumni/ae

1888-Thomas W. Lamont. No Twilight About Me: A Life in Letters, by Lansing Lamont [a glimpse of culture, the arts and commerce through the lives of Thomas W. Lamont PEA 1888 and his wife Florence Lamont in correspondence with their four children, including Thomas S. Lamont '16, Corliss Lamont '20 and Austin Lamont '23] (Strawtown Press, 1999).

1935-R.W. B. Lewis. American Characters: Selections from the National Portrait Gallery, accompanied by literary portraits. (Yale University, 1999).

1939-John H. Daniels. Hook and Bullet Anecdotes: Fifty Years of Fishing and Shooting, a Christmas book for family and friends, with drawings by Patricia Adelman. (Nothing Could Be Finer Press, 1999).

1948-Paul D. Carrington. Stewards of Democracy: Law as a Public Profession. (Westview Press, 1999).

1949-Thomas P. Hoving. Art for Dummies: A Reference for the Rest of Us! (IDG Books, 1999).

1956-Paul John Eakin. How Other Lives Become Stories: Making Selves. (Cornell University Press, 1999).

1956-Philip D. Harvey. Let Every Child Be Wanted: How Social Marketing Is Revolutionizing Contraceptive Use Around the World. (Auburn House, 1999).

1957-Carlson R. Chambliss. U.S. Paper Money Guide and Handbook. (BNR Press, 1999).

1961-John Irving. The Cider House Rules [a screenplay]. (Talk Miramay Books/ Hyperion, 1999).

1962-A.A. (Lon) Neese. Cutting the Gordian Knot: Understanding Investing in Stocks, Bonds, and Mutual Funds. (Noble House, 1999).

1963-Albert L. (Bro) Halff. Seasonal Delights [a book of poems] written and illustrated by Bro Halff. (Mellon Poetry Press, 1999).

1969-Daniel J. Hoffheimer, et al. Sixth Circuit Federal Practice Manual, second ed. (Anderson Publishing Co., 1999).

1975-Mary Gotschall, Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., and Jesse L. Jackson Jr. It's About the Money: The Fourth Movement of the Freedom Symphony: How to Build Wealth and Achieve Your Financial Dreams. (Times Books, 2000).

-David S. Potter. Literary Texts and the Roman Historian: Approaching the Ancient World. (Routledge, 1999).

1979-Nelson Lee. Juan Cabanilles and his Contemporaries: Keyboard Music from the Felanitx Manuscripts, I (American Institute of Musicology/Hänssler-Verlag, 1999).

1984-Jefferson S. Chase. Translation and introduction of Death in Venice and Other Stories, by Thomas Mann. (Signet Classic, 1999).[video and resource guide].Amos Tuck Society, 1998).

Briefly Noted

1934-William L. Batt Jr. and David Balducchi. "Origin of the 1948 Turnip Day Session of Congress." In Presidential Studies Quarterly (vol. 19, no.1, winter 1999).

1947-Jeffrey O'Connell and Thomas O'Connell. "Kenny's Kennedys: A Study in Power" [review of] A Common Good: the Friendship of Robert F. Kennedy and Kenneth P. O'Donnell" by Helen O'Donnell. In The Journal of Law & Politics (vol. XV, no.1, winter 1999).

1967-Michael Burwell. "The Steamer POLITKOFSKY - Part II." In The Sea Chest: Journal of the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society. (vol. 32, no.4, June 1999).

-"The Steamer POLITKOFSKY - Part III and Part IV." In The Sea Chest: Journal of the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society (vol. 33, no.1, September 1999).

1969-Philo A. Hutcheson IV. "Reconsidering the Community College." In History of Education Quarterly. (vol. 39, fall 1999).

1970-Joyce Maynard. At Home in the World. [paperback edition with a new afterward by the author, and the full text of "An 18-Year-Old Looks Back on Life," printed in the April 23, 1972, issue of The New York Times Magazine.] (Picador, 1999).

1982-Jon F. Anderson and Thomas A. King. "Market Barriers to Natural Gas Vehicles and the Role of Clean Air Credits." In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. (no. 1664, 1999).

1986-Humberto X. Mata. "Proyecto de autonomias provinciales ecuatorianas." In Descentralizacion. (Tramasocial Editorial, 1999).

Former Faculty

Frederick Buechner. The Eyes of the Heart: A Memoir of the Lost & Found. (Harper Collins, 1999).

A Journey of Self-Discovery

"People know me here." So begins Chang-rae Lee's new novel, A Gesture Life. The speaker is an aging Japanese immigrant known in the town of Bedley Run, New York, as Doc Hata. "It's a simple determination," he goes on. "Whenever I step into a shop in the main part of the village, invariably someone will say, 'Hey, it's good Doc Hata.'" But we soon learn that the determination is by no means simple. For one thing, Hata is not a doctor but a businessman who owns a medical supply store. For another, 30-odd years in Bedley Run may have created Franklin Hata and his impeccable reputation as an upstanding citizen, but it has only masked Ziro Kurohata, the officer in the Japanese Army of World War II whose goodness was dramatically called into question by unspeakable events. Thus, from the very beginning of this magisterial novel, we find ourselves trying to know Doc Hata, even as Doc Hata is trying to know himself. And it is not easy.

This riveting narrative balances two plot lines, one placing us in the Pacific Rim during the 1940s, the other in American suburbia during the 1990s. Kurohata, the young Doc Hata, was born in Korea and raised in Japan by adoptive parents. As a paramedical officer in the Japanese Army during WWII, stationed in old Burma, he is put in charge of the "comfort women," Korean girls dragooned into encampments and forced to give sexual favors to the Japanese soldiers. While discharging his duties, he falls in love with one of the girls, then faces an ultimate decision as to how to manifest that love.

The other plot line offers us the bourgeois life of Franklin Hata, adorned with shopping malls, his private swimming pool, and a comfortable respectability. But we sense, almost from the beginning, that there is something wrong with that apparently successful life. For one thing we hear it in Hata's voice: measured and at times exquisite phrasing but elevated in a way that suggests distance from the very life he is describing to us. For another we witness it in his relationship with Sunny, his adopted daughter from Korea. Sunny, defiant in behavior that would chill any parent, is equally defiant in words. "I don't want your love and I don't want your concern," she says. "I think it's fake anyway. Maybe you don't know it, but all you care about is your reputation.... You make a whole life out of gestures and politeness."

The structure of the novel grants us this sense that there is something wrong before it gives us the background to explain it. But sure enough, as Doc Hata narrates the horrifying circumstances involving the comfort girls, we begin to understand. And so does Doc himself, enabling him finally to take actions that manifest a life that is more than a gesture life. So it is that, by the end, a friend can say to him: "I mean inside, you are a doctor, whatever you actually know. I can tell. It doesn't matter if you have a degree or not. You have the spirit of one in you. The essence." Finally, the determination is indeed simple: "good Doc Hata" has become, at last, one with the insight to "sense [people's] pulses" and with the goodness to act on what he feels. In A Gesture Life, Chang-rae Lee has created for us an emotionally isolated man who ultimately learns to live a life founded not on reputation but on the "inexhaustible" nature of forgiveness and the rich possibilities of the human heart. Reading this brilliant novel is nothing less than an exercise of the spirit.

— Peter Greer

Peter Greer has been an instructor in English at the Academy since 1968.

Taxes With a Twist

Taxes in Medieval England posed a whole dimension of difficulty that we are spared in a modern economy. Currently we write a check to the IRS, our state and local government, and possibly our church. Between 500 and 1,000 years ago, payment was due to roughly the same organizations in the form of crops and other agricultural output. There was no child care exemption, and the tithe of 10 percent due to the church was not an optional charitable donation, but a requirement supported by the king. The implications of this scenario are hinted at in James W. Griswold's wonderful new book A Guide to Medieval English Tithe Barns.

It was England's tithe barns which allowed the church of that era to carry on its mission. The church was responsible for providing education, social order, charity, and a rudimentary justice system for those living in its vicinity. These barns were required to house, process, and distribute the agricultural products collected in the form of tithes from the people. Today it would seem amusing and impractical to pay one's charitable contributions in the form of a wagon of wheat, two of barley, three hens, and a cow. Five hundred years ago, it was a reality that the church in England was well-equipped to handle. In many cases, the first major architectural undertaking carried out by a new monastery was the construction of a large barn for the collection of tithes which would support its mission. The tithes collected would also eventually pay for the building of a new church or cathedral.

Griswold's guide provides the reader with a smattering of information essential to the understanding, location, and appreciation of these historic barns. It includes a brief history of the church in England and tithing. It also draws the reader in with structural details, diagrams, and a practical guide to finding these fascinating structures. Mr. Griswold has creating a genuinely interesting book by offering countless tidbits of information without losing his focus or overburdening the reader. For example, after reading the guide, I now know why a door sill is called a threshold. For those craving even more information, the guide also is well referenced, providing information on more texts on this and related subjects. The final portion of the guide is a list of over 130 different barns with notes about their characteristics and addresses.

Beyond being a list of locations, this guide also challenges the traveler to explore and find new barns. Mr. Griswold gives the reader a sense of enthusiasm for these often overlooked historical buildings. As a student of the art of building with large timbers, I was very impressed with the information about these structures and the contrast between the way in which they were crafted in England and in America. A timber frame barn in America is a tremendous structure, but one which is dwarfed in scale and in age by the British version. It is difficult to imagine a barn standing for 500 to 1,000 years when the oldest buildings in this country rarely exceed 200 years.

If you are interested in such topics as history, religion, architecture, forestry, woodworking, or rural travel in England, I highly recommend A Guide to Medieval English Tithe Barns. This will certainly be one book which I take along on my next trip to England.

— Peter Southam

Peter Southam has been an instructor in science at the Academy since 1998.