Rookery Blues - Hardcover

Hassler, Jon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0345393562 ISBN 13: 9780345393562

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1995

Synopsis

The New York Times Book Review praised the characters in Jon Hassler's last novel, Dear James, as"so exquisitely rendered that even a first-time visitor to Staggerford will come to love them as old friends." Now, in Rookery Blues, Hassler once again brings to life an oddball group of Midwesterners, as they brace themselves and each other for the turmoil of the late 1960s on a small college campus.
Rookery, Minnesota, is about as far north as you can go and still be in the United States, and Rookery State College is an academic backwater if ever there was one. The campus is populated by students seeking draft deferments during the height of the Vietnam War and misfit teachers who can't get a job anywhere else. Even so, some of the faculty at Rookery State long for a meeting of the minds, the companionship of soulmates.
And then, one frigid afternoon, the Icejam Quintet is born in the improbable basement apartment of Neil Novotny, an unkempt English instructor and obsessed novelist. With Leland Edwards on piano, Neil on clarinet, Victor Dash on drums, and Connor on bass, the group comes together with the help of its muse, the lovely Peggy Benoit, who plays saxophone and sings. The most gifted and spirited of the bunch, Peggy instills the harmony that allows the Icejammers to produce the kind of jazz they've all dreamed of playing, bringing them satisfaction they never thought they'd experience.
But even isolated Rookery State will be touched by the great discontent sweeping the country. News of a salary freeze electrifies the rabble-rousing Victor, and the first labor union in history comes noisily to campus. As a teachers' strike takes shape, threatening both the draft-dodging students and the complacent administration, the five musicians must struggle with their loyalties--to the school, the town, their families, and each other....
As he does in all his novels, Jon Hassler infuses the story of this unlikely collection of eccentrics with wry wit, deep feeling, and ultimately, his faith in human beings to endure despite their own sadly comic foibles. Like his beloved Staggerford novels, Rookery Blues is about the sheer need for community that everyone harbors--even in the unlikeliest places.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"One of his finest and funniest novels."
--The New York Times Book Review

"UNFORGETTABLE . . . Hassler has skillfully encapsulated an entire world of humanity and emotion in one tiny town in northern Minnesota."
--San Diego Union-Tribune

"IRRESISTIBLY DELIGHTFUL . . . TOUCHING AND UPLIFTING."
--The Orlando Sentinel

"AN UPROARIOUSLY FUNNY, WONDERFULLY SATISFYING SENDUP OF ACADEMIC TOMFOOLERY."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

About the Author:

Jon Hassler was born in Minneapolis in 1933. He received degrees from St. John's University in Minnesota, where he is now an English teacher and writer-in-residence, and from the University of North Dakota. Jon Hassler is also the author of eight other widely acclaimed novels: Staggerford, Simon's Night, The Love Hunter, A Green Journey, Grand Opening, North of Hope, Dear James, and The Dean's List.
From the Paperback edition.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0345393562
• ISBN 13: 9780345393562
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 484