Boy From the North Country: A Novel, Sam Sussman, author and narrator
This book is read very tenderly, if not also very morosely, by the author. It is a sad story that is loosely based on the author’s own background. Twenty-six-year-old Evan Klausner and his mother June had not seen each other often after he left college. Evan had moved to London while she remained in their farmhouse in Goshen, New York. For most of Evan’s life, he had seriously wondered if his real father was Bob Dylan. He was obsessed with the notion because he had an uncanny resemblance to him, but his mom never revealed her true relationship with Dylan until near the end of her life, and then the idea was still inconclusive.
When June called Evan to reveal that she had cancer, he immediately returned to Goshen to help her. His immediate reaction to their reunion was shock. Once strong and healthy with beautiful auburn hair, she was now a shadow of her former self, and her hair was no longer beautiful. It was graying and dry. Understanding that she is facing a serious illness alone, he vows to stay with her to help her get through this trying time. His loyalty, compassion and level of devotion are truly commendable.
The book explores their relationship and the revelations they each confess. He learns much more about his mother’s past life and is unsure of why she had kept it so secret before. Still, she insists that he listen to her confessions, and he learns about her relationship the very famous Bob Dylan, aka Robert Zimmerman. The “friendship” continued for years, even while he was growing up. The book delves into their secrets, their desires and dreams. It illustrates the effects of their own behavior on each other and on their paths in life.
This is really a very emotional story about Evan’s devotion to his mother and hers to him. As they grow closer through her treatments, his attentive care and kindness is very detailed as is her reaction to it. As they work through the trauma of her illness, a beautiful relationship develops that is very strong and loving, but also doomed. Cancer was robbing June of her beauty and strength, and although she never lost hope and her temperament always remained calm, she was marked by her genetic ancestry. So, although she was a woman who not only advised people how to live a healthier life to enhance their recovery from one thing or another, and she indeed followed a very healthy lifestyle, she could not avoid her inherited genes. June ate well-sourced food, organically grown, practiced yoga and exercised. Although she lived alone, she had her dog Luke as a companion. She was fairly content. Then she discovered she had the cancer that had already afflicted other women in her family.* She did face her diagnosis with courage and hopefulness, always trying to adjust her lifestyle to the demands of the disease, always continuing her healthy behavior to ensure that she would have the strength to fight the effects and the treatment required.
As the reader follows the deterioration of June’s health through the eyes of Evan and June, it seems that June is prepared for whatever happens, but Evan is not, until the inevitable finally does happen. It is a very difficult book to read because the subject is so depressing, and although it is written very lyrically, it is always a tragedy.
*The mutation of the BRCA gene is passed down through the mother and father and will continue to show up generation after generation. The Jews from Eastern Europe have a far greater chance of carrying this mutated gene. June and Evan are Jewish, although they are not practicing Jews.
I never followed Bob Dylan, but the tidbits about him were interesting. I had no interest in learning of the author’s views on illegal immigration, however, but nevertheless, he felt compelled to insert an anecdotal immigrant story to indicate his political views. Bob Dylan plays a major role in the novel, while the immigrant fades quickly into the background and was really irrelevant. The author’s views seem hopeless regarding the genetic tendency to disease and conflicted regarding Judaism. Although June followed a healthy lifestyle, knowing she was susceptible to ovarian and breast cancer because she had the mutation of the BRCA gene, she was unable to avoid it. Tragically, although June was a healer, treating and guiding many patients through illness and trauma, and although she was also a believer in holistic medicine, she was helpless to heal herself, but she was not helpless in her effort to deal with it with dignity. I was unhappy to learn that morphine is quietly being used to end life, not only to make the end of life less painful and uncomfortable. Also, the idea that Doctors do detach themselves from their patients, in the end, regardless of how long they know the patient, because the doctor truly treats only the body, is more and more evident today with the changes that have taken place in our system of medical care and medical records. Our struggles have become prat of a recorded journey rather than a human one. When the body dies, so does the relationship. Perhaps that is the only way a doctor can deal with so much loss. This story of illness, followed by the loss and sorrow that accompanies life’s inevitable end, is difficult to read, but it is very well written.