Robert Hellenga (1941–2020)

The Sixteen Pleasures – Robert Hellenga

4 stars

“What is amazing is how intensely you care about this woman” – The New Yorker

That quote appears on the back cover of my battered paperback copy of The Sixteen Pleasures. It’s true. I did come to care a great deal about Margot Harrington and her 1966 sojourn of self-discovery in flood stricken Florence. However, the truly amazing thing is how accurately Robert Hellenga managed to capture the inner voice and personality of a young show more woman.

Margot is 29 and dissatisfied with her life. Her mother’s death interrupted the future she thought she would have and seems to have set her adrift. In the aftermath of the flood, she takes her skills as a book conservator to Florence to help with the clean-up. She ends up in a convent, helping the sisters rescue their library. In the convent library, they find a Renaissance masterpiece of erotic verse with pictures. Margot restores the book, and helps the convent realize the profits form its sale.

Margot finds a book of erotica, but her story, as told by Hellenga, is not erotic. Oh yes, she does fall in love and has an affair, but it is not overly graphic. Mostly this story is played out through Margot’s inner reflections about her life and her relationships. Hellenga also gives us a peek into the thoughts of her lover, the likable, deceitful, Dottor Sandro Postiglione. My favorite character was the Mother Superior of the convent. I would have enjoyed more of her pithy, insightful comments. I also enjoyed the beautiful descriptions of the art and the details of the restorations. I would have liked a great deal more of that.

Margot may discover many things about her own sexuality in Florence, but she also spends much time reflecting on her relationships to other women. In the end, when she finally takes control of her own life, (and I wondered if she would ever get there) her loyalty to her sisters, both biological and metaphorical, is the overriding factor. It is so much a woman’s story. I’m looking forward to reading more of Hellenga’s writing to see what other amazing things he can do. show less

I feel reluctant to review LOVE, DEATH & RARE BOOKS, not because it isn't a wonderful book - it IS! - but because it is Robert Hellenga's last book, published just a few months before his death. I was shocked and deeply saddened at the news of his passing this month (July 2020, he was 78), because I have been reading his work for well over twenty years and would count myself an avid fan. And I had even corresponded aperiodically with Bob over the past ten years, exchanging book chat. So ... show more What to say? Where to begin?

One of the last of Bob's other books that I had read was THE TRUTH ABOUT DEATH, a story collection with that exquisite title novella, about a family-run funeral business that spanned a few generations. Well this one, LD&RB, could easily have been titled "The Truth about Love," because it features a thirty-year love affair between the principal characters - the narrator, Gabe Johnson, and Olivia, a strong-willed woman who passed in and out, and back into Gabe's life. And, as in the aforementioned novella, a three-generation family business is key to the story. Chas. Johnson & Son is a venerated Chicago bookstore and repository of rare books founded in 1932 by Gabe's grandfather. Abandoned by his mother as a boy, and rejected by Olivia, Gabe spends plenty of time and countless occasions pondering the mystery of love, finally arriving at a rather unsatisfactory conclusion as he sits and waits at a deathbed -

"I was thinking that now at last I understood the truth about love. Once again. But what I understood now was that it isn't something you can put into words."

Yes, there is plenty here about the great mysteries of both love and death. (I couldn't help but think of the classic work by literary critic Leslie Fiedler, LOVE AND DEATH IN THE AMERICAN NOVEL, a book I read in grad school decades ago.) But Hellenga's book is also rich in references to books of all kinds, a stew of books great and small that could only come from a life spent studying, teaching and writing. And the references range from Dante, Montaigne, Cicero, Plato, Steinbeck, Wordsworth, Keats, Salman Rushdie, Salinger, and Kraft-Ebbing - and Nancy Friday - to Judy Blume, Beatrix Potter, Walter Moseley, Bulwer-Lytton (originator of the line "It was a dark and stormy night"), Melville, Shakespeare, Kate Chopin, Bellow, Poe, Flaubert, Frank Baum, the Bible (of course), and more and more and on and on. In fact, literary references abound throughout the text, making LD&RB a book lover's delight. Hellenga does not shy away, however, from the current plight of bookstores and the impact of Amazon and ebooks. That issue figures prominently, in fact. And Michigan (my own state) figures in too, as the Johnsons had vacationed regularly for decades at the Lake Michigan beach in the southwest part of that state, just below the St. Joseph/Benton Harbor area. And of course Italy figures in (Hellenga manages to work Italy into almost all of his books, as he was, for most of his life, an ardent Italophile). Gabe's mother is Italian, and left his father for an Italian lover. (In fact, another Hellenga book is titled, THE ITALIAN LOVER.) The rich descriptions of Chicago neighborhoods and the small towns and beaches of Michigan make them almost characters in themselves. And the ethnic foods and various wines play similarly important roles in the story. Oh, and dogs - there are two of them, Punch and Booker.

Hellenga loved all these things - dogs, foods and cooking; fine wines; music (like Hellenga, Gabe plays some blues guitar); books of all kinds, common and rare, classic and pulp; some suspense (there's a bomb in here too); and a good love story, told tastefully. And I could almost feel him placing all these things he loved into this, his last work, mixing and molding them all into a wonderful story that made me both laugh and cry.

It's a beautiful book, Bob. This old book lover absolutely loved it. Thank you. For all of your books. You will be missed. My very highest recommendation.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less

I have begun to think of Robert Hellenga's books as my "Italian Connection." THE TRUTH ABOUT DEATH AND OTHER STORIES is the fifth Hellenga book I have read (there are eight in all), and it seems Italy always crops up. This might seem odd, considering Hellenga has spent most of his professional life teaching at little Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. But Hellenga's life has been anything but landlocked or isolated. Born in a small town in southwest Michigan and educated at UM and show more Princeton, he has lived in Belfast, Galesburg, Florence, Bologna, Verona, and Rome, and seems to have a special affinity for all things Italian. I think that's called an 'Italophile'.

First things first. This book is worth every penny of the purchase price for the title novella alone. I was immediately caught up in the DEATH story. It is a beautiful portrait of three generations of the Oldfield family, proprietors of a funeral home in Galesburg, Illinois. We learn, in the course of the story, that there has been an Italian connection in all three generations. Louisa, the mother of Simon (the current owner of the business), Elizabeth (Simon's wife), and Hildi (Simon and Elizabeth's daughter) have all had Italian lovers. We see how, through the years, the business evolves and changes. At Hildi's suggestion, the funeral home is brightened up with local art (which is for sale), family members are invited to be present in the washing of the deceased, to hold a hand. There is even a 'therapy dog' named Olive. Much of the story is set in Galesburg, and at the funeral home (and a lot in Italy too), so of course there are deaths, which grow to include some of the principals here. Trigger warning: you may find yourself weeping.

The cover art, a Grim Reaper cartoon from THE NEW YORKER, is significant too. In fact that magazine's cartoon editor, Bob Mankoff, becomes a minor character in Elizabeth's part of the story. Enough said. You HAVE to read the story.

Death is a subject many people prefer not to contemplate, but there is no shrinking from it in "The Truth about Death." It is dealt with in all its complexities. Parts will make you wince, others may bring a chuckle, but there is also a sense of reverence for the mystery that will always surround that place where we are all headed. I loved this story. Louisa, Simon, Elizabeth and Hildi will occupy my mind and heart for a long time.

The other eight stories here are all small gems, many of them written twenty or more years ago, some the seeds for later novels. I enjoyed them all, but I repeat, the title novella is the crown jewel here. And, given the theme of Italian lovers woven throughout the story, I know I absolutely must now read one of Hellenga's earlier novels, titled - naturally - THE ITALIAN LOVER. But this book, THE TRUTH ABOUT DEATH, is just so damn GOOD! You've GOT to read it! My highest recommendation.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less

First things first: I LOVED THIS BOOK!! I know, caps and exclamation points - I sound like a teenage girl. But I'm a guy, and I'm more than fifty years past teenage. But Robert Hellenga's newest novel, THE CONFESSIONS OF FRANCES GODWIN, was just so damn good I couldn't believe it. Well, yes I could, because I've already read three other Hellenga novels over the past fifteen years or so - THE SIXTEEN PLEASURES, BLUES LESSONS, and SNAKEWOMAN OF LITTLE EGYPT - and they were all great.

But show more CONFESSIONS may well be Hellenga's best book yet. I think this one is truly a labor of love. The story is set in Galesburg, home of Knox College, where Hellenga taught English for decades and is now a Professor Emeritus and writer-in-residence. The town, lovingly mapped and described, is so important to the story that it practically becomes a character. The title character grew up on a farm nearby and attended Knox College, where she met her husband, Paul Godwin, her Shakespeare teacher (married to someone else at the time).

Galesburg, Milwaukee, Rome, Verona. All important places to Frances Godwin. Parts of her life both with Paul and later with her troubled daughter Stella and by herself. Faith, art, music, life itself. All the big questions are in here, and maybe some answers too. I'm not going to do any plot summaries here. The thing I kept wondering as I was reading was whether Hellenga was intentionally writing a kind of modern version of St. Augustine's CONFESSIONS.

Because narrator Frances calls her story a "spiritual autobiography." A lapsed Catholic, she is fluent in Latin, a dead language, but also the language Augustine wrote in. She has her regrets about things she has done in her life, things recounted in stark and vivid detail, and is constantly toying with the idea of confessing her great sins, and moving "out of the shadows into the light." She has frank conversations with God, a God who seems oddly human and keeps urging her to confess. On one of her trips to Italy she is even carrying a copy of Augustine's CONFESSIONS.

I know a little about St. Augustine, but have to confess I have never read his books. So I am a bit over my head in trying to make a comparison. In the contest of wills between Frances and God, does God win? (Sorry, but I couldn't resist that.) That's something each reader will have to decide. The thing is, this narrative is just so rich with sidebars and details about so many things - all fascinating - that I just did not want it to end. But it does, and when I read that last paragraph, that final line, it gave me goose bumps. It was so perfect, positively perfect.

One more comparison kept popping up as I was reading Hellenga's CONFESSIONS. I kept remembering Agatha McGee, a fictional spinster teacher, the creation of the late Minnesota writer, Jon Hassler, who first appeared in his 1976 novel, STAGGERFORD, and then in several subsequent novels. Like Frances, she was Catholic, but a pragmatic and practical one, who also had her doubts at times.

St Augustine or Jon Hassler? Yeah, there are parallels and comparisons, but Hellenga's Frances Godwin is one of a kind, a kind you don't often see in contemporary fiction. I am selfishly hoping that Hellenga might follow Hassler's lead and bring Frances back again in another novel. She's that fascinating a character. Did I say I LOVED this book? Oh yeah, I guess I did. Terrific book! VERY highly recommended. show less