Looking for Canterbury

A novel by Jason Marks
Published by Xlibris Corporation
1-888-7-x-libris
ISBN # 0-7388-6527-3
203 pages $21.99 softcover

 

“You may leave Nam, but Nam never leaves you.” One of the characters in the compelling novel ‘Looking for Canterbury’ by Jason Marks says, and I have heard that before myself, many times. In my opinion, what was done to our men and women that served their country during that time was, and in many ways still is, reprehensible. We sent over boys that were only playing Army one day, then fighting for their survival the next. I was too young to go, barely, and in all honesty, I don’t know what I would have done if my number had been called. Thank God I will never know the kind of horrors many I know still to this day suffer. In previous wars, the men came home en mass together in a victorious march down Main Street, greeted with cheers and ticker tape. However, when they came home from Viet Nam, they returned in dribs and drabs. There were no cheering crowds, they were met instead by protesters calling them baby killers, rapists, and all kind of other names. One night sleeping in the jungle, their lullabies the sound of gunfire and mortar shells, only to find themselves the next sleeping in a bed with cotton sheets and silence. There has been very little help for the veterans of the war it seems everyone wants to forget, and it seems to me it is time to right this wrong. Many Vets have had to find their own way back to sanity, some with drugs, others with counseling, others with support groups made up of those that experienced the same atrocities they did. It is the last group that brings me to my review for ‘Looking for Canterbury’. Sorry for the rant, but Vietnam is a sore point with me.

Harry Baylor is one of those Vets that has never left the jungle fully behind. Although an accomplished business owner, his personal life suffers. The love of his wife no longer his, he finds solace only in the works of Chaucer, and his meetings with his support group of other Vietnam Vets. When Harry’s wife kicks him out of the house, he takes half of their money and invites his compatriots on a recreation of the famous Canterbury Tales, where each of them will tell a tale that will not only entertain, but might in someway allow insight into who they are, with a prize being awarded to the best one. Resplendent in medieval accoutrements befitting the recreation, the ragtag group of friends begin their adventure, regaling each other with tales that cause their compatriots to laugh, cry, and bond in ways none expected. Their lives would never be the same again may sound cliché, but believe me; it’s more than appropriate.

Author Jason Marks has done something that many would find daunting I’m sure, yet manages to pull it off with seeming ease-that of taking a classic like the Canterbury Tales and updating it for relevancy in our time. I don’t know how many of you ever read Chaucer in school, for me it was required reading. I will be the first to admit that Chaucer, like Shakespeare, can be intimidating to some, and I will confess I was one of those readers. The bard caught my ear in ways that Chaucer never did, but I guess that is, as they say, why they make chocolate and vanilla. Mr. Marks, in updating the travelers and their tales have made the story more entertaining to me than the original ever was.

It’s not just that the story has to do with Vietnam, although to me it is a plus, but it is his style of writing, his ease of characterization, and his conversational dialogue that sounds like something someone would actually say. Too many authors in wanting to write conversations forget that it needs to sound like two or more people speaking, but not Mr. Marks. His people actually convey emotions on more than just the surface level, and for that alone he should be commended.

Find this book, and immerse yourself in the richness of the world that has been created between the two covers. Enjoy the tales that these travelers weave, you’ll be enlightened more than you know.