Tinkers (2009) is the first novel by American author, Paul Harding. The novel tells the stories of George Washington Crosby, an elderly clock repairman, and of his father, Howard. On his deathbed, George remembers his father, who was a tinker selling household goods from a donkey-drawn cart and who struggled with epilepsy. The novel was published by Bellevue Literary Press, a sister organization of the Bellevue Literary Review.
Tinkers won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and other awards and honors. The Pulitzer board called the novel "a powerful celebration of life in which a New England father and son, through suffering and joy, transcend their imprisoning lives and offer new ways of perceiving the world and mortality."Tinkers follows George Crosby in the days before he dies and his memories from his childhood. The book takes you through both George's life as well as his father's, Howard, who sells home …
Tinkers (2009) is the first novel by American author, Paul Harding. The novel tells the stories of George Washington Crosby, an elderly clock repairman, and of his father, Howard. On his deathbed, George remembers his father, who was a tinker selling household goods from a donkey-drawn cart and who struggled with epilepsy. The novel was published by Bellevue Literary Press, a sister organization of the Bellevue Literary Review.
Tinkers won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and other awards and honors. The Pulitzer board called the novel "a powerful celebration of life in which a New England father and son, through suffering and joy, transcend their imprisoning lives and offer new ways of perceiving the world and mortality."Tinkers follows George Crosby in the days before he dies and his memories from his childhood. The book takes you through both George's life as well as his father's, Howard, who sells home goods from a wagon in New England. You learn about George's skill at fixing clocks which becomes a metaphor for life's beauty as well as its fragility. It is about Howard's struggle with epilepsy as well as his own relationship with his father who was a minister who fell ill when Howard was a boy. It is a novel that is not only about death but the gift of simple pleasures of nature and being in the world. It is about fathers and sons, solitude and connection.
to be honest, this book baffled me. a pulitzer prize winner, it screams 'high quality' but i could not get past it's poetic nature. sentences could fill near a page - thoughts joined by commas and semicolons - but couldn't keep my attention long enough to get the point. a man is dying. his thoughts are to his childhood and his abandonement by his father. mental illness seems to run throughout the story. first person narration switches from son to father... yup. baffled me
This book is like a bottle of your favorite desert wine - short, sweet and ultimately drinkable. It makes you want to stretch on the sofa and enjoy it in small sips.
