The Hole Truth

The Hole Truth

PURSUITS

TOMMY BUTLER ’92

Before You Go HARPER 272 PP. $26.99

READERS OF BEFORE YOU GO, TOMMY BUTLER’S tricky, charming, often quite somber debut novel, will initially be under the impression that it’s a sort of high-concept metaphysical comedy along the lines of Good Omens and The Good Place, two recent TV hits about supernatural bureaucrats mucking about in the lives of ordinary folk.

In this case the angelic functionaries are Merriam and Jollis, who have been tasked with designing the prototype human “traveler” about to be sent to live on Earth. In a last-minute tweak of the design, Merry creates an empty space next to the human heart—a perhaps ill-advised innovation that dooms us all to lifetimes of dissatisfaction with our respective lots.

“They’ll feel it,” Jollis moans, “and they’re going to constantly be looking for things to fill it with. They’ll eat too much. They’ll fall in love with the wrong people. They’ll hoard money, and watch too much television, and buy useless crap from holiday catalogs, like potato scrubbing gloves or a spoonula.” (A spoonula? Never mind.)

Some of these dire forecasts—in particular the one about falling in love with the wrong people—come predictably true in the life of Butler’s significantly named protagonist, Elliot Chance. After a childhood of feeling misunderstood and insufficiently loved (and finding temporary solace in a vivid fantasy life that his parents and older brother fail utterly to appreciate), Elliot settles down to an even less satisfactory adulthood as an accountant in New York City during the dot-com boom.

At a suicide-prevention therapy group—yes, he has considered killing himself—Elliot meets Bannor, an older gentleman who claims to have visited the future and has foreseen his own suicide, and Sasha, a young ad copy writer and frustrated novelist who slips coded messages into ads and is desperately curious about what happens, if anything, when we die.

To explain how Butler’s cosmic story scaffolding is both more and less than it seems would constitute a string of spoilers. He uses various literary sleights of hand to draw his readers into a moving, decidedly realistic tale about one man’s search for the meaning of life and his dawning recognition that confusion and sadness are simply parts of the human experience.

That hole in our hearts turns out to be all too real, but in Before You Go, there’s more than we ever dreamed of to fill it with.

Kevin Nance

alumni books

EDITOR’S PICKS

WARREN VALDMANIS ’95

Accountable: The Rise of Citizen Capitalism

Harper Business

Lively and highly readable, this book explores how capitalism, particularly as practiced by the Fortune 500, is to blame for the current state of pernicious inequality, catastrophic climate change, and global instability. It details a road map to reshape the corporate landscape and rebuild the economy to generate prosperity without peril.

LAURA (ZACHMAN) JAMISON ’97

All The Right Mistakes

She Writes Press

In her debut novel, attorneyturned-author Jamison crafts a heartwarming story about five college friends, just turned 40, who discover that one of them has written a tell-all book exposing the central life mistakes of each of the other four. The resulting drama sheds light on the complex nature of adult relationships, the definition of success, and happiness in a world filled with obstacles.

MICHAEL LEONG ’00

Contested Records: The Turn to Documents in Contemporary North American Poe try

University of Iowa Press

Leong explores why many modern poets turn to public documents as inspiration for their art. Drawing on works by poets such as Amiri Baraka and Claudia Rankine, the work explores not only the source documents but also each poet’s process of selection and curation.

LINDSAY MAITLAND HUNT ’09

Help Yourself: A Guide to Gut Health for People Who Love Delicious Food

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Writer and cook Hunt follows up on Healthyish, her 2018 success, again providing recipes that are nourishing, delicious, and good for the gut. The former studio art major shows that eating tasty food that makes us feel good is not so hard after all.

Additional titles and excerpts can be found on the DAM website.