Friends: Here is the report by Jonathan Farrell of the Sunset Beacon and Richmond Review.... , and the on-line publication, .The DIGITAL JOURNAL.... He has given us his permission.... <run a Google check of this reporter's other writings.... He is tops
from THE DIGITAL JOURNAL:
Set in 1957 Indiana, "The Swan" a novel by Richmond District author Jim Cohee is receiving good reviews. And, this is much to his surprise especially when the novel was set aside by Cohee for over two years; until his wife pulled off the shelf and told him to submit it.
Professor, Lowell Pratt of Menlo College interviewed Cohee before an audience of over 15 people on Oct. 10 at a meeting of the Sunset Heights Association of Responsible People.
"My first novel 'The Nineteen Steps to Whatever' was rejected 50 times," Cohee said. The audience laughed when he noted that he was beginning to wonder if it was 'karma' coming back to haunt him as he had been an editor, often the one who sent out the very type of rejection letters, he got. "I wrote ‘The Swan’ in five months; working seven days a week,” Cohee told Pratt that Monday evening at the SHARP clubhouse on 9th Ave & Moraga. Cohee said that he read and researched a lot, at least more than a dozen novels, as well as other materials to get a sense of direction and context for his novel. Cohee said that the Midwest is magic for storytelling. Yet interestingly, "The Wizard of Oz" was not on his list. Among the novels he read that Cohee said helped him along in the process, besides classics like Jack London's "Call of the Wild," was "Dr. Sax" by Jack Kerouac. This according to Cohee was the ‘book idea’ that he had in his head most of the time while writing the "The Swan." Like Kerouac's “Dr. Sax”, Cohee weaves a story concerning a traumatic incident. The main character in “The Swan” is ten-year-old Aaron Cooper. Because Aaron witnessed the death of his younger sister, Pookie, the trauma has left him unwilling to speak. Aaron copes with life's challenges by disappearing into his own imagination. He envisions being captain of the Kon Tiki, driving his sled in the snowy Klondike, and tiger hunting in India. Aaron is guarded by secret friends like deposed Hungarian Count Blurtz Shemshoian and Blurtz's wonder dog who protect him from the creature from the Black Lagoon-who hides in Aaron's closet at night. The tales he constructs for himself, the real life stories he is witness to, and his mother's desperate efforts to bring her son back from the brink, all come to a head at an emotional family dinner. Structured upon childhood memories of Cohee’s own growing up in Indianapolis, The Swan is a fictional memoir about enduring love and the weighty nature of mortality. Cohee also said in his chat with Pratt that he used “benchmarks from the 1950’s throughout the story.” “Howdy Doody” “Slinky” and cap guns, that those of the Baby Boomer generation would recall. Reference to the Cold War is one of the benchmarks which lend itself to Aaron’s “secret agent” type of capers in his imagination. Cohee read passages from the book, which pleased the audience. Among them was local writer/journalist Steven Winn. “I do think it's a very delicate and complicated matter to take on the voice of a young boy and channel adult sensibilities through him,” said Winn. “That's a great and worthy achievement,” said he.
When asked later, if The Swan could be brought to the screen like Stephen King’s novel “Stand By Me,” that also is a recollection of a childhood set in the 1950’s, Cohee replied, “I don't know about The Swan as a movie: most of the novel takes place in the boy's head.” “Aaron is tiger hunting, driving dog teams, sailing log rafts, etc. and that might be hard to film,” Cohee said. But, “If a producer is interested, I'm interested,” Cohee said. He also pointed out it's not a coincidence that the publisher Indiana University Press is in Indiana, the book is set in Indiana. That is something he is very pleased about. Yet even more so was that, “it was my wife Linda Kay Smith who rescued the project, insisting that I send it out and recommending Indiana University Press. For more info visit web site http://www.iupress.indiana.edu or call (800) 842-6796.
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