Review of Henry, Himself, by Stewart O'Nan

Henry, Himself by Stewart O'Nan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I was eager to read O’Nan’s new novel, which continues the story of a Pittsburgh family told in two previous books--Wish You Were Here, and Emily, Alone—and it did not disappoint. Like these earlier books, O’Nan details the daily life and inner thoughts of the characters, in this case Henry, the family patriarch. A retired engineer, Henry maintains the exactitude of his profession in his household routines, lawn-care, tinkering on projects in the basement, and maintaining the family cabin at Chautauqua. No detail is too small for his attention, whether it be the church rummage sale, a golf outing with buddies, or the leaves that drift into his yard from the neighbors each fall. The small and large accidents of life continually de-center his plan to maintain order. The reader is made aware of his aging body with its unsettling aches and bruises; the slightest frictions with his wife or daughter, Margaret; and the nagging thoughts about his own death and how it will come. His world is shared by his loyal dog Rufus; his wife of 50 years, Emily; and his two children, their spouses and grandchildren. Pittsburgh, his hometown, is the world he has known from childhood—and he is attentive not only to the round of seasons, the annual celebrations at church and home, but also to the ways Pittsburgh has changed and stayed the same over the years. We share a year in his life, from Valentine’s Day and a dinner out that involves a chilly ride on the Duchesne Incline; to a brisk New Year’s Day walk around the reservoir with Rufus. Henry holds memories and regrets, like us all, including a best-friend who died in WWII; an early, secret love affair; a difficult relationship with his daughter; and a general sense of social inadequacy, of not quite knowing how to fit in. In counterpoint are small bursts of pleasure and surprise, like sitting on the dock in the moonlight with an arm around his wife and remembering their courtship, or receiving a Father’s Day gift from his children of a Grundig transistor radio he didn’t know he wanted. People, events, and thoughts conspire to knock him slightly off-course, showing him and us that life often gives us less—and more—than we expect.



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