Crystal Springs: A Novel
FICTION
Don Lesser | Rootstock Publishing
256p, trade paper, $18.99, ISBN 978-1-57869-222-4
Lesser’s probing debut is warm and alive but laced with regret, over the split-second decision that changes the trajectory of Steven Bennett’s life, and the inertia that keeps him rooted in a small town that was supposed to be his jumping-off point. In the 1970s, Steven flees
Cambridge for graduate school in the Pioneer Valley, that academic bastion in Western Massachusetts, evoked here with precise attention to clouds, flora, farmhouses, accents, traditions, drug habits and beer choices.
Lesser’s dreamers rhapsodize about the moonlight on the snow, what road offers the most marvelous views of the Holyoke Range, and, movingly, the very smell of the land. It’s there that the free-floating Steven meets his anchor: Madeline Carpenter, an enigmatic (and married) artist, whose independence and vulnerability are equally attractive.
Their complex, on-and-off relationship is tender and fraught, and Lesser’s storytelling takes the long view, charting these lives—and their secrets—over decades with polished, observant prose, attuned to small moments that suggest deeper truths. Despite its scope, the novel moves briskly, with Lesser dramatizing key scenes and trusting readers to fill in some background. Bouncing through different careers (historian, chef, computer programmer), Steven marries the grounded Dee and becomes stepfather to her daughter. Thirty years later, tragedy upends his settled existence, leaving the survivors searching for answers and struggling with grief, culpability, and their compromises.
Lesser finds beauty in the waning of these richly drawn characters’ ambitions. “Everyone walks in beauty when they’re nineteen, especially when they’re quoting your poetry back to you,” says Richards, in youth a “certified hero poet.” This story of aging avoids the maudlin with sharp chatter, even as the cast boozily reflects, relishing could have beens and dishing hard truths: “he never let being a parent get in the way of a good time,” one wife says of her ex. “They turned out okay despite all that.” Readers of humane literary fiction that captures life as it’s lived will recognize and be moved by these people.