Had Kurt Vonnegut, William Saroyan, J.D. Salinger, Carlos Castaneda, Raymond Carver and James Thurber ever gathered at a writer’s workshop to co-author a short novel, the product might well have been “The Swan.”
As it is, the Hoosier-born Jim Cohee has concocted this delightful and poignant story all by himself. A mere 117 pages, “The Swan” is a funny, fantastical and touching stream of consciousness from an extraordinary 10-year-old boy. The year is 1957, the place is north-central Indianapolis, and the boy is weird and wonderful Aaron Cooper, a child who copes in imaginative ways with the pain and mystery of life, death and adults.
Aaron loves baseball, science fiction, tales of the Amazon, Audrey Meadows of “The Honeymooners,” Jack London, ice cream and visits to his grandma in Martinsville. He deeply fears The Creature of the Black Lagoon — who crawled out of the headwaters of the White River one day to take up residence in Aaron’s bedroom closet — and despises the neighborhood bully, Kong Warthead. Aaaron also has a double on another planet named — what else? — Noraa Repooc.
Time out here for context: I’ve never met Cohee. Like scores of people during my decades in journalism, he contacted me and asked if he could send along his book for my perusal. Against my better judgment (born of the desultory harvest of all those years), I said, OK. Thank heavens I did. This is one terrific first novel.
Normally, a slow reader, I flew through “The Swan.” Then I gave it to my husband, who read most of it during an Amtrak ride from New York to Baltimore, chuckling so often, he nearly got us kicked out of the “quiet car.”
The novel had the same effect on Linda Oblack, regional editor at Indiana University Press, which — until “The Swan” — did not publish original fiction.
“I was ready to reject it, but then I started reading it and I couldn’t put it down,” Oblack said. “I sat in my office and read it in one sitting. I thought, ‘We’ve got to publish this.’ It really got to me.”
Oblack eventually persuaded her colleagues and “The Swan” became the first in an entirely new series for Indiana University Press, Break Away Books, which features fiction by writers from the Midwest.
So, who else might find the story of Aaron Cooper worthwhile?
Anyone who grew up in the Midwest in the 1950s and ’60s. Anyone who now lives in the Midwest. Anyone who ever fantasized as a child. Anyone who has parented a different-drummer child. Anyone who admires carefully crafted prose. Anyone who would like to take a short trip out of her or his own existence and inhabit the kaleidoscopic world of a strange little guy who does the best he can — as Faulkner put it — not just to survive, but to prevail.
Cohee moved at age 13 with his family from Indianapolis to California and now lives in San Francisco. After a career as an editor at Sierra Books, he retired to write fiction and to volunteer as a teacher in an inner-city Catholic elementary school.
“The Swan” is actually Cohee’s first published novel. The first he wrote (at age 60) is called “The 19 Steps to What Ever.” It was rejected 50 times, a grueling experience that Cohee said in a recent telephone interview “liberated” him to sit down with no expectations or pressure and write as he darned well pleased. Five more novels, including “The Swan,” followed.
“They’re all short,” Cohee said. “I do not want to write an 800-page Thomas Pynchon novel.”
Bless him. The world needs more 117-page adventures that make us laugh, swallow hard with emotion and, ultimately, marvel.
It was Cohee’s wife, Linda, a college reference librarian, who suggested he pull “The Swan” from his growing stack of never-to-be-submitted novels and try for a publisher. “Why don’t you send it to someone in the Midwest?” she said.
Fortunately, the book landed in Oblack’s lap at I.U. Press in Bloomington. It can be ordered online at iuporder@indiana.edu or by calling 1-800-842-6796. Book Nation in Terre Haute also has copies in the store or can order it for pickup after next month, when the bricks-and-mortar arm of BookNation will close.
Cohee has ties to Terre Haute. His mother grew up Marion Ferguson in a house on Barbour Avenue that still stands; his grandfather owned a paint store in 12 Points. Cohee’s detailed remembrances and images of the Butler-Tarkington neighborhood of Indianapolis in which he spent his childhood could just as easily have sprung from 1950s Terre Haute — or Evansville or Lafayette, Akron, Ohio, Champaign-Urbana, Ill., or Des Moines, Iowa. Across six pages in one chapter, in fact, Cohee lets loose like an improvising jazz musician, riffing on an eclectic and evocative list of mid-20th century slang and cultural phenomena, from View-Masters and mail-order pet alligators to “The Cisco Kid” and “Atlas Shrugged.”
And yet, “The Swan” is no one’s nostalgic wallow. Rather, it’s a homemade rocket ship that may go “pocketa-pocketa” but can actually get you to Mars for a good look around. All you have to do is climb aboard and enjoy the ride.
Arts
‘The Swan’ captures imagination of 10-year-old boy circa 1957
- Arts
-
-
Scott Hinton’s photos take focus at Vigo Library
River City Art Association and the Vigo County Public Library are featuring photography by Scott Hinton throughout May in the library at Seventh and Poplar streets.
Hinton is a self-taught photographer and artist whose main focus is nature-inspired pictures and paintings. -
Halcyon Gallery featuring Terre Haute native Maraldo’s artwork
An exhibit titled “Words Flow Into Water” is scheduled to open at 7 p.m. Friday at the Halcyon Gallery, 25 S. Seventh St. The show continues through May 25.
-
Art guild’s annual spring show at mall May 3-5
The Wabash Valley Art Guild plans to host its 36th Annual Spring Show on Friday through Sunday at Honey Creek Mall.
-
Indiana Artisan works on display at Clabber Girl
Combining the strength of their individual artwork into exhibitions of exceptional depth, 29 Indiana Artisans have partnered on Indiana Artisan: Paintings and Drawings.
Ten Indiana Artisans have continued the statewide series as the Clabber Girl Gallery opened the exhibit on Tuesday. It will continue through May 30. -
Covered Bridge Gallery lists winners
The Covered Bridge Art Gallery celebrated its Spring Art Show and the grand opening of its renovated second floor on April 28 at 124 W. Ohio St. in Rockville.
-
Newly inspired artist earns Guild’s approval
Kathy M. Matlock, artist of the month for April by the Wabash Valley Art Guild, was born and raised in Sullivan, has lived various places, but has recently returned from Oregon.
-
Swope First Friday on May 3 to feature ISU group, student art, Hopper painting
At the Swope Art Museum’s next First Friday, on May 3, it plans to welcome members of the Indiana State University Community School of the Arts and say a brief farewell to a famous painting.
-
Awards handed out in Ehrmann Poetry Competition; Carter wins grand prize
An awards ceremony for the 2013 Max Ehrmann Poetry Competition was held on Friday at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, recognizing new poetry written by Wabash Valley residents.
-
Covered Bridge Art group spring show coincides with open house for renovation
The Covered Bridge Art Association’s 39th annual spring art show and the grand opening of the gallery’s newly renovated second floor are scheduled to be celebrated together at an open house from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sunday.
-
Edgar students’ work on display at Bicentennial Art Center
The Bicentennial Art Center at Paris, Ill., is featuring the creative work of Edgar County junior and senior high students in the Annual Edgar County Student Art Show, open through Sunday, when a reception open to the public will begin at 1 p.m.
-
Sustainability Club forming fish from trash; 'Catch of the River' on display April 20-May 5
In partnership with the Saint Mary-of-the Woods College’s Sustainability Club, the Department of Text & Image is bringing awareness of what is thrown into the Wabash River, with an art installation on campus from April 20 until May 5.
-
Exhibit opens April 20 for River City Art Association
River City Art Association members are scheduled to exhibit their work Saturday through May 11 in Gaslight Art Colony’s gallery at 516 Archer Ave., in Marshall, Ill. An artists’ reception is set for 6 to 9 p.m. CDT Saturday.
-
Valley artists taking part in ‘First Brush of Spring’ at New Harmony
Julia London-Meddles of Terre Haute and Wyatt LeGrand of Bloomfield are scheduled to join about 200 artists at the 15th annual “First Brush of Spring,” a popular Plein Air (outdoor) Paint Out event scheduled today through Saturday in New Harmony.
-
The arts kick off Disability Awareness Month
Roxanna Robertson did signing to the song “How Great Thou Art,” while Linda Allis did a dramatic reading, using excerpts from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
-
Through His Lens: Artist showcases beauty of America’s southwest at Rose-Hulman exhibition
Terre Haute native Darrell Staggs never thought of himself as an artist, but always liked the idea of photography.
-
Clabber Girl to host woodworking demonstration
Artist Debbie Anderson will provide a woodworking demonstration to an adult art education class on Feb. 26 in the Clabber Girl Museum in Terre Haute. Anderson has had her intarsia woodwork on display throughout February at The Gallery in the museum at Ninth Street and Wabash Avenue.
-
Arts Illiana offers free workshop on grant writing
Arts Illiana will offer the following technical assistance workshop to regional arts organizations and arts providers.
The free workshop, Crafting Your Grant Narrative, is scheduled 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Nov. 14 in Arts Illiana at 23 N. Sixth St. -
Sisters of Providence artist to exhibit work
Sister Jody O'Neil, artist in residence for the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods, will have some of her artistic creations on display and available for purchase during art shows Nov. 11 and 16.
-
River City Art Association honors the late Marty Martinez in November
The River City Art Association and the Vigo County Public Library will feature art by the late Association co-founder Marty Martinez for the month of November in the library at Seventh and Poplar streets.
-
Terre Haute to announce City Arts Project Grants
The City of Terre Haute and Arts Illiana will announce the 2012-2013 City Arts Project Grant Awards during a ceremony at 10 a.m. today. Mayor Duke Bennett will present checks to nine nonprofit organizations at Arts Illiana.
-
New Harmony artist, former TH resident to exhibit work at Clabber Girl
New Harmony artist Mary Ann Michna will present an exhibition of her recent photographs Nov. 2-30 at Clabber Girl Museum Art Gallery.
-
Wabash Valley artists participate in Indiana Wildlife Artist Association show
Each year the Indiana Wildlife Artist Association presents a show of Fine Nature Art in various locations across the state featuring many of the state’s premier artists vying for awards. The showing will be displayed to the public through Friday at the Visitors Center at Angel Mounds State Historic Site in Evansville.
-
River City Art Association announces winners of annual show
The theme of the Fourth Annual Art Show of the River City Art Association Inc. was “Scouting for Art.” The event was Aug. 11 at the Girl Scouts of Central Indiana building at Fairbanks Park.
-
Swope honors noted local artist, educator, first board president
Continuing the yearlong celebration of the museum’s 70th anniversary, the Swope Art Museum presents “The Art of William T. Turman,” an exhibition of the work of the noted local artist, educator and first president of the Swope’s board of managers.
-
River City to showcase photographer’s work in September
The Vigo County Public Library and the River City Art Association will show the photographic art of Rob Robbins for the month of September.
-
‘Binding Wounds, Pushing Boundaries’ national exhibit arrives at Indiana State
Many histories have been written about medical care during the American Civil War, but the participation and contributions of African Americans as nurses, surgeons and hospital workers has often been overlooked.
-
Art Guild features photographer in August
The Wabash Valley Art Guild is featuring the August Artist of the Month, Jean Kristeller, whose works of photography are on display at the Vigo Country Public Library at Seventh and Poplar streets.
-
Arts, live music festivals on tap Labor Day weekend in Bloomington
Labor Day weekend in Bloomington will be filled with special events. Major events include an art festival, a live music festival and an Indiana University football game.
-
Faculty Exhibition opens at Indiana State’s University Art Gallery
View recent works by eight Indiana State University studio faculty and instructors in the 2012 Department of Art Faculty Exhibition, on display at the University Art Gallery Aug. 20 through Sept. 15.
-
Oncology on Canvas coming to Marshall Public Library
A special exhibit will be on display at the Marshall, Ill., Public Library in August in conjunction with a program by Hux Cancer Center radiation oncologist Dr. Robert Haerr.
- More Arts Headlines
-




