The Cardiff Giant

Enigma #1

by Larry Lockridge, Marcia Scanlon (Illustrator)

The Cardiff Giant , set in Cooperstown, New York, has up its novelistic sleeve Puck's profound declaration, "Lord, what fools these mortals be!" Jess Freeman, investigative reporter, arrives on the scene to look into the weird disappearance from the Farmers' Museum of a huge human figure. He had been unearthed in the late nineteenth century near Cardiff, New York. Jess confronts locals and outsiders who all have a theory, including that the giant has been reanimated and is lurching throughout the community. They are enmeshed in self-punishing belief systems such as alien abduction, astrology, kabbalistic numerology, New Age rebirthing, and religious dogmas reduced to literal absurdities. The fast-paced action centers around episodes where they pay a sorry price for their beliefs. But skeptics don't fare much better, susceptible as they are to mental disorders that show the faculty of reason is fragile indeed. These characters group and regroup, with romance always on their minds, and finally come to recognitions at once surprising and moving.

Genres: Fiction

164 pages, Paperback

Published January 11, 2021

About the author

Larry Lockridge is a writer living in New York City. Professor Emeritus of English, New York University, and a Guggenheim Fellow, he is best known for the prizewinning biography of his father, "Shade of the Raintree: The Life and Death of Ross Lockridge, Jr., Author of Raintree County." He is publishing four standalone yet interrelated novels, "The Enigma Quartet," with Iguana Books, Toronto--"The Cardiff Giant," "The Great Cyprus Think Tank," "Out of Wedlock," and "The Woman in Green" (2021-23).

Reviews

[Clifford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast-paced, outlandish, and entertaining. An investigating reporter arrives in Cooperstown NY to investigate the disappearance of the "Cardiff Giant"--a petrified statue of mythical proportions. He encounters a crazy cast of characters who only feed his own insecurities and superstitions. This is a fun romp by the author of SHADE OF THE RAINTREE, a terrific biography of the author's father.

[Reader Views · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Cardiff Giant,” is the first book in the Enigma Quartet series by Larry Lockridge.

When investigative reporter Jack Thrasher arrives in Cooperstown, New York, he has no idea how much his life is about to change. He is there to investigate the disappearance of the Cardiff Giant from the Farmer’s Museum in Cooperstown. The quirky locals are convinced that the giant has been reanimated and is roaming through the community. Jack’s investigation takes him around the community, interacting with the local folks who are caught up in their metaphysical pursuits, which directly impact how they view the giant. Jack finds himself engaging in some interesting adventures as a result, including some erotic encounters! Determined to solve the mystery, Jack is stunned when he sees the giant brought to life. The mystery delves deeper, and appears to become more complicated than imagined, until Jack discovers the truth.

Larry Lockridge has done an excellent job of putting his writing talent on display with this novel. He incorporates a fun plot that is based upon an actual American hoax with a cast of quirky, eccentric characters. While the characters tend to be a bit off the wall, at their core, they share the same desires and dreams that the rest of us do. They are just very caught up in their social constructs. The author sets the scenes at real locations in Cooperstown. Being able to look for information on these places, made this story even more fun for me. I felt like I could see the scenes actually taking place at the real locations. I loved how the characters, settings, legends, and metaphysical beliefs all blended together to create an amazing escape during my spring break.

Readers who enjoy a good satire will really love “The Cardiff Giant.” Lockridge seamlessly incorporates many writing tools which would make this novel a great resource for readers’ and writers’ groups. I also felt that this would be a great tool to use as a required reading for an English course. Students will not only learn from the writing techniques they will also enjoy reading the story!

[BooksCoffee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lockridge’s rollicking latest dissects the aboriginal community in the Cooperstown, New York, as an investigative journalist arrives in town to look into the disappearance of a gigantic human figure.

Jack Thrasher, the investigative reporter for the Discovery Channel, arrives in Cooperstown, home of many gothic castles, the Baseball Hall of Fame, and the Glimmerglass Opera to look into the weird disappearance of a three-ton artifact of petrified gypsum, the Cardiff Giant, from the Farmers' Museum. Jack begins his investigation, unaware of the astonishing events that would follow soon after.

Lockridge interweaves his various protagonists’ stories, with asides about people’s religious and paranormal belief, the town’s colorful history, baseball, opera, tourism, cable TV programming, while conveying their yearning for love, connection, and purpose.

Jack stays at the center of the story, but the book’s real star is Thor Ohnstad, whose inspiring journey from the son of a Midwesterner janitor to a country gentleman of immense wealth and means is familiar (with echoes of Fitzgearld’s Gatsby), and yet both honest and original. Esther and Sheila, with their fears, insecurities, inner turmoil, and petty sibling rivalry come across as vividly real. Lockridge adeptly portrays the pair’s expanded sense of consciousness as they try to cope with their personal traumas—Esther through sexual escapades and kabbalistic numerology and Sheila falling for every New Age racket that comes along (a particularly colorful scene has her behaving like a green-backed heron).

Cooperstown is exotic and its inhabitants, with their self-punishing belief systems quirky. The various characters’ rollicking exploits are thrillingly and hilariously chronicled: the pair of Jack and Esther behind bars with magnesia water wreaking havocs on their digestive tracks; Barry Tarbox and the passionate Local Alien Abduction Focus group’s night raid on aliens; Jack and Sheila caught on national television with their pants down while trying the age-old boy scouts trick to put out the grass fire; and strings of calamitous events Jack repeatedly gets pulled into among others.

Though the large cast of characters and their individual stories add complexity to the main storyline, Lockridge’s entertaining storytelling and sharp dialogue make sure the narrative never peters out. His witty, intelligent prose, keen understanding of human psyche, and impressive attention to detail carry the often winding story. Marcia Scanlon’s dramatic illustrations bring off the scenes of characters’ boisterous exploits as well as poignant emotions with distinct, intimate credibility.

In addition to illuminating Cooperstown’s unsavory history of racism (there are only two Blacks and three Native Americans in its population of two thousand), the novel vividly illustrates the toil the relentless individual struggles can take on one’s psyche.

John Irving fans need to check this one out.

The hard-core literary fiction lovers will relish this immersive tale.

[Lulu Atoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Jack Thrasher, an investigative reporter, arrives in Cooperstown, New York, to cover a mysterious and impossible missing object from Farmers' Museum—a vast human figure found a century earlier in Cardiff, he stumbles upon a community that holds myth and legends dear. Everything from aliens, kabbalistic rituals, New Age rebirthing, and religious dogmas run rampant in this small-town setting. Between episodes of ancestral searching by some the town's cast of characters and complicated love triangles—getting straight answers is not easy. Luckily, Thrasher has his own quirks--revealed as a hilarious close first-person narrator on the story to add to the mix and takes all in stride—that is until he has a close encounter with what seems to be the living embodiment of the Cardiff Giant. This fast-moving mysterious paranormal adventure surprisingly also manages to squeeze in a bit of romance for Thrasher—whose life is forever changed by his visit to Cooperstown.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quirky and entertaining.

[Mimi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A vague reference to the 19th century hoax,the Cardiff giant, and other odd happenings

[Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the worst things I've read. I know it's suppose to be satire, but it's just a dozen stereotypes and offensive characters in a jacket sleeve.

[LindaAnn LoSchiavo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bring your sense of humor when you enter this fictional version of Cooperstown, New York, painted in broad humorous strokes by Larry Lockridge.
Investigative reporter Jess Freeman arrives in town, hired by the Discovery Channel, assigned to find out why this entity has gone missing from the Farmer's Market.
As innkeeper Thor Ohnstad gives Jess Freeman a tour "of the Great American Village," the reader begins to be introduced as well to a wide cast of townsfolk, each cozily enthralled by various superstitions, i.e., alien abduction, astrology, kabbalistic numerology, New Age rebirthing, quasi-religious cults.
Mr. Lockridge is a sharp-eyed, sarcastic Boswell, poking good-natured fun at everything and everyone from town founder William Cooper, Natty Bumppo (the Leatherstocking of James Fenimore Cooper's tales), Glimmerglass Opera, the Baseball Museum, his own besotted dramatis personae, and (of course) the fake mythic giant.
There are other books on the Cardiff Giant — — but none will lead the reader on such a merry, satirical romp through 149 pages.
— Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ —
* * F.Y.I.: The Cardiff Giant was a money-making hoax perpetrated by George Hull. On Oct. 16, 1869, workers digging on the farm of William “Stub” Newell in Cardiff, New York, uncovered what seemed to be a 10-foot tall giant. Thousands of spectators paid to see this "giant," thereby enriching Mr. Hull.