THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 19, 1996 TAG: 9605200207
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY DAVID SIMPSON
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
MASON'S RETREAT
CHRISTOPHER TILGHMAN
Random House. 290 pp. $22.
Readers hereabouts may recall Christopher Tilghman's 1990 short-story collection, ``In a Father's Place'' - particularly a tale titled ``Norfolk, 1969,'' which contained a merciless description of the city landscape as seen through the eyes of a young naval officer.
Though it may not have earned rave reviews from the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce, the story signaled the arrival of a talented writer of short fiction - as did the marvelous title piece, set on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
Now Tilghman's first novel demonstrates that he is a master of the long form as well. Mason's Retreat takes us back to the Shore for a tale of family love and betrayal in the years just before World War II.
The story, an ironic twist on the Parable of the Prodigal Son, centers on the family of Edward Mason. He is a charming but luckless American who has lived for more than a dozen years in Manchester, England, where he owns a small machine tool business. But it has sunk into debt, and he decides to return to America to claim his inheritance, a Maryland estate called the Retreat.
Edward, wife Edith and their two sons, Sebastien and Simon, cross the ocean in apparent style aboard the luxury liner Normandie, but not all is well.
Edith is weary of her husband's failed schemes and his dalliances with office girls. Yet she knows she must ``pretend that there is still hope in her, because maybe the real thing will follow.''
Sebastien resists his father more openly. He is a stalker, a lurker, a digger-up of secrets. He knows, for instance, who has paid for the family's passage aboard this lavish ship.
In contrast, his younger brother, Simon, is as simple and sweet as his name. He is firmly in the orbit of his father, worshipful and trusting.
When the Masons arrive on the Eastern Shore, it appears that Edward has failed his family yet again. The Retreat, abandoned for a decade, is a monstrous wreck.
``A window had not been opened in years, and the air that night was the worst of it, thick with the odors of neglect; mold and moth, rot and rust. Long strips of Chinese wallpaper hung off the walls in spirals as if left over from a gay party. An animal - not a mouse or a rat, but something large, like a fox or a dog - had died long ago in the center of the hall, leaving only the black stain of its dried juices and a moldy skeleton.''
Moreover, the house feels thick with Mason ghosts. That night Edith lies sleepless amid the flutter of insects and the creak of stairs.
But the light of day brings hope, and with renewed energy she begins to make the place habitable.
Sebastien, meanwhile, heeds the call of woods, creeks and marshes. Roaming the estate, he believes he's found his true home. A natural empathy for outcasts draws him to the farm's black workers, especially the embittered Robert.
In the coming days, Edward studies the dairy operation and begins to brainstorm ``improvements.'' Edith and Sebastien, it turns out, have reason to fear the worst.
After several months of fumbling and folly, Edward hears good news from abroad: His business, bolstered by Britain's need to re-arm, seems to be turning around. He leaves the family behind for an indefinite stay in Manchester.
With Edward away, the family thrives. Edith throws herself into gardening, befriends a woman neighbor - and allows herself to fall in love with a handsome younger man. Simon, though he misses Edward, makes many friends at school. And Sebastien's life is just as he wants it: free and fatherless.
But this idyllic world cannot last; the next turn of the plot speeds the family toward disaster.
Tilghman has crafted a richly satisfying story. Contrasting the war within and the war without, he traces the dramas and deceptions of a once-prosperous family on the wane.
His narrative, elegant, wise and poetic, gets to the heart of each character. The dialogue rings true as well, with only one brief lapse: At a crucial moment, Edith lets slip a line that could have come from Scarlett O'Hara.
The events of the novel are imaginatively reconstructed many years after the fact by Simon's grown son. Far from distancing us, however, this device emphasizes the continuity of life, of lessons learned and forgotten, of patterns tragically repeated. MEMO: David Simpson is a staff editor. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Local readers may remember Christopher Tilghman's ``Norfolk, 1969,''
an unsympathetic portrayal of the city.
by CNB