Summer/Autumn
2005
The Greening of Ben Brown
Michael Strelow
Hawthorne Books
Portland, Oregon
Trade paperback, 267 pp., $15.95
(Reviewed by Amy Andrews)
After a terrible accident
sent enough electric current through his body to have killed him,
electric company lineman Ben Brown turned green. Without any ideas
from the medical community about why it happened or how long it would
last, Ben takes his settlement from the company and relocates to East
Leven, a small riverside town in Oregon. Physically healthy, he
notices the only
after-effects are an increased sensitivity to the presence
of chemicals and electricity, and the fact that he seems to be getting
younger.
The people of East Leven are naturally curious
about their most visible resident, better known locally as the Green
Man, and devise their own theories about his origins and his purpose.
As time passes, he eventually fades from everyday conversation and
becomes just another resident of East Leven,
a town threaded by numerous creeks, each with its own ghost (legend
has it that a sacrifice is periodically demanded by the water in return
for the good fortune it allows the town—the most well-known ghost
being Anne Doucette, who broke her neck in a fall off a bridge at age
12) and best known for it’s largest employer, Horchow Inc., an
industrial metals manufacturer. Ben Brown is just another resident,
that is, until the Green Man takes dramatic action that thrusts
Horchow into the public eye, and himself squarely into the crosshairs
of the townspeople, the media, and the law.
With a quirky cast of supporters, most of whom
are living more or less on the physical or social fringe like himself,
Ben Brown manages to polarize the town’s residents like nothing
since the famous split over the decision whether or not to plant
non-native trees in East Leven.
Debut novelist Michael Strelow’s prose is
wonderfully descriptive, especially in describing the natural
characteristics of East Leven, and clearly demonstrates his affection
for the state he’s called home for more than thirty years. Of Ben
Brown, he writes, “Of course, his greenness depends on the light.
Coppery green? No, greener. Like a dark fog, an alligator just under
muddy water, reptile green. In shadow, brown like a dark nut.”
But Ben Brown is a curious character. On the one
hand, he’s overcome by the chemicals in the sprays in a local
filbert orchard, yet he can withstand whatever’s in the poisonous
sludge kept in pools in Horchow’s fenced property. Did Ben Brown
know that the waste products from the industrial processes were
already polluting the river before he made his grand gesture, calling
attention to the damage in the most visible way possible? Why, if he’s
so “green” would he risk exacerbating any environmental damage by
making his point?
The Greening of Ben Brown has an
interesting premise, but the lack of a personal back-story for the
title character makes it feel rather flat, as do the opening pages where Strelow
takes his time setting up the action. There are several open-ended
aspects of the book: who Ben Brown really is; why he chose to act; the
identities and motivations of the person or persons who want to harm
him after he makes his stand against Horchow; and the true impact of
Ben’s actions on the town. No clear answers are given to the reader;
however, other answers are revealed to things the reader doesn’t even
realize are questions, which is kind of awkward and (for me, at least)
prompted a bit of flipping back and forth between the front and back
of the book. The explanations make sense; they’re just answering
questions you hadn’t thought to ask.
While some readers relish such fluidity in a
novel and the interpretation it makes possible, others may find it
unsatisfying. Is Ben Brown’s purpose in the town of East Leven
supposed to be that of another sacrifice to the water, the price
exacted by the river for the town’s bounty? Or perhaps to draw
attention to East Leven’s poor stewardship of the river? Maybe I’m
reading too much into it, or perhaps I’m just not smart enough to
figure it out. Either way, The Greening of Ben Brown makes for
an interesting case study of one Oregon town’s unique relationship
with the land.
– AA –
