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When Mermaids Sing

Mark Zvonkovic
iUniverse (2009)ISBN 9781440167171
Reviewed by Enid Grabiner for RebeccasReads (01/10)

Back in the early 1970’s, the baby boom generation was haunted by the Vietnam War, segregation, and women’s rights among a whole assembly of political issues.  Coming of age at that time focused not only on securing world peace but finding personal inner peace as well, most often through reflection, often in combination with recreational drugs.  Many followed transcendental meditation and joined cults which offered an escape from reality and conduit to a private tranquility. 
 
In order to achieve this paradise-like state, one would have to be removed from all that makes demands of him.  Family, friends, jobs, anyone or thing that detracted from his focus had to be eliminated in order for him to “follow the Path.”  The question to be addressed was “Is that person seeking an alternative lifestyle doing so of his own free will or is he simply a vulnerable, troubled soul coerced into joining cult as a result of aggressive brainwashing?”

This question is central to the novel, narrated by Larry Brown, a young junior high school teacher, who is awkwardly moving into adulthood.  Clinging to idealized memories of childhood, working in a school setting, maintaining old buddies and dating college girls is his unconscious way of avoiding independence. Full of self doubt, insecurity often drives his actions.  He is critical of how his friends, family and associates seem to manipulate him, but he avoids conflict by obliging them. He has a selfish controlling girlfriend who cheats on him, yet he can’t move away from the demeaning relationship.  He is also critical of his professorial father’s need to engage in erudite discussions, yet Larry loves to infuse his opinions, satisfying his need to showcase his own cerebral capabilities.

At one of his father’s gatherings, he is drawn into an esoteric discussion of poetry and paintings with Jenny, a new student at the college he hopes to impress.  She later tells him of her brother Josh, who she fears is being held by a cult at an ashram on Cape Cod.  Her father has hired “deprogrammer” Sam Henry, better known as “Black Lightning,” to kidnap him and bring him to his senses.  Larry soon discovers that his cousin Bradley is also a member of this ashram and implores Sam’s help in rescuing him as well.  Filled with preconceived views of the cult, they set off to liberate them.  Larry embarks on a very disturbing journey on which he reaches an emotional turn, challenging his own belief system and lifestyle choices.

Much of this book revolves around Larry’s childhood memories of summers with cousins on Cape Cod and commentary on his current state of affairs.  Although the prose is beautifully written and the literary references fascinating, they were initially a distraction as they interjected the dialogue, disrupting the flow of the story.  As the book progressed however, the action and dialogue melded well with the aside remarks.  Plot, character development, and issues of the time period make “When Mermaids Sing” a great book club selection.

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