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Henry responds to the news by slogging home barefoot in the rain. It’s 1925. The place: Canyon County, Idaho. Henry is sixty-seven, a retired professor and a widower who has been told a warmer climate would make the end more tolerable. San Diego would be a good choice.
Instead, Henry chose Fairhope, Alabama, a town with utopian ideals and a haven for strong-minded individualists. Upton Sinclair, Sherwood Anderson, and Clarence Darrow were among its inhabitants. Henry bought his own ten acres of piney woods outside Fairhope. Before dying, underscored by the writings of his beloved Tolstoy, Henry could begin to “perfect the soul awarded him” and rest in the faith that he, and all people, would succeed, “even if it took eons.” Human existence, Henry believed, continues in a perfect circle unmarred by flaws of personality, irrespective of blood and possessions and rank, and separate from organized religion. In Alabama, until his final breath, he would chase these high ideas.
But first, Henry had to answer up for leaving Idaho. Henry’s dearest friend and intellectual sparring partner, Pastor Will Webb, and Henry’s two adult sons, Thomas and Harvey, were baffled and angry that he would abandon them and move to the Deep South, living in a barn there while he built a round house of handmade concrete blocks. His new neighbors were perplexed by his eccentric behavior as well. On the coldest day of winter he was barefoot, a philosopher and poet with ideas and words to share with anyone who would listen. And, mysteriously, his “last few months” became years. He had gone looking for a place to learn lessons in dying, and, studiously advanced to claim a vigorous new life.
The Poet of Tolstoy Park is a moving and irresistible story, a guidebook of the mind and spirit that lays hold of the heart. Henry Stuart points the way through life’s puzzles for all of us, becoming in this timeless tale a character of such dimension that he seems more alive now than ever.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
March 1, 2005 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780345481962
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780345481962
- File size: 460 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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February 14, 2005
A dying man's decision to move from Idaho to Alabama becomes a quixotic spiritual journey in Brewer's ruminative, idiosyncratic first novel, based on a true story. In 1925, widowed Henry Stuart learns that he has tuberculosis and will probably be dead within a year. Stuart's initial reaction is optimistic resignation, as he regards his illness as a final philosophical journey of reconciliation, one that sends him back through the writings of his beloved Tolstoy and other literary and spiritual figures to find solace and comfort. Despite the protests of his two sons and his best friend, he decides to move to the progressive town of Fairhope, Ala. There, he begins to build a round, domed cottage where he seeks to "learn in solitude how to save myself" and earns himself the sobriquet "the poet of Tolstoy Park." The plot, such as it is, runs out of steam when Brewer makes an ill-advised decision to jump forward in time in the last chapters, but the heady blend of literary and philosophical references and some fine character writing make this a noteworthy debut. Agent, Amy Rennert. (Mar.)
Forecast:
Book world support for Brewer—who owns Over the Transom Bookshop in Fairhope, Ala., and is the editor of the annual anthology of Southern writing,
Stories from the Blue Moon Café—will be strong, as evidenced by blurbs from Pat Conroy, Robert Morgan, Rick Bragg and Winston Groom. Six-city author tour. -
November 1, 2004
Owner of Over the Transom bookstore, chair of the Fairhope Center for the Writing Arts, and editor of the annual Blue Moon Caf anthologies, Brewer has finally gotten around to writing a novel. He takes us back to 1925, when Henry Stuart is told he has only a year to live-a prediction he handily disproves. With an eight-city author tour.Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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February 15, 2005
First-novelist Brewer chronicles the real-life journey of Henry Stuart, who, in 1925 at the age of 67, is diagnosed with consumption and told he only has a year to live. Henry decides to leave his home in Idaho and bid his two grown sons and best friend good-bye before his decline begins. Henry chooses a small plot of land in Fairhope, Alabama, as his final residence, and he corresponds with a man named Peter Stedman in order to get the supplies to build a house. On the train to Alabama, Henry gives his shoes away to a porter and determines to live out the rest of his days in solitude. But life might have other plans for him: on the final leg of his journey he meets a friendly schoolteacher named Kate, and Peter also seeks to develop a rapport with Henry. Henry tries to shut them all out until one life-altering night gives him a new perspective. Fans of quiet, philosophical novels will find much to enjoy in Henry's musings and revelations.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.) -
Starred review from December 1, 2004
In 1925, when 67-year-old Henry Stuart is given a year to live, the path he must follow is immediately clear. Stuart leaves his Idaho home and moves to a ten-acre patch of isolated paradise in Fairhope, AL, which was founded by freethinker Henry George-who shared Stuart's love of Tolstoy. Stuart's decision shocks his sons and his lifelong friend, Preacher Will Webb, but his drive to live out the remainder of his life in simplicity and solitude is irresistible. Once he lands in Fairhope, Stuart's all-consuming project is to build a round shelter of cement and eat only food that he grows himself. First novelist Brewer brings honor to this real-life, little-known eccentric, from whom we could learn a great deal. Balancing the friendly curiosity of Stuart's neighbors against Stuart's desperate need for privacy and self-reliance, Brewer offers a gloriously imagined vision of one resourceful life. It will not escape those who fall in love with this beautiful novel that Stuart's cement beehive stands today in its original location, which is now a parking lot. A powerful prayer to a less complicated way of being in the world, this book is highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/04.]-Beth E. Andersen, Ann Arbor District Lib., MICopyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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