the Typist
Nov 28, 2010
the Typist
Author: Michael Knight
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Publication Date: August 3, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-8021-1950-6
OKRA 2010 Top Ten Pick
This slim novel might be small in stature but it’s full of character. Michael’s book jacket states that this is written with an “economy of language” but I prefer to say that it gets directly to the story without a lot of excess background flair that just is not needed.
Van finds himself in the army during WWII as a typist, directly stationed in the office of MacArthur himself. Life has taken Van and whirled away with him while he often is still trying to figure out what happened. He meets and marries a girl while in basic training and then is shipped off to work in an office across the world when they find out that his mother taught him how to use a typewriter.
So there he is, in Japan, married to someone he doesn’t actually know, typing “Bunny’s” letters for him. To top that off, MacArthur decides his young son needs to play with someone who won’t give him a foppish accent so Van finds himself on play dates at MacArthur’s house.
Meanwhile he’s venturing out into Tokyo, meeting PanPan girls and wondering just how his life will turn out when all of this is over.
A good story of a boy falling through life, trying to stay moral with looseness surrounding him and just waiting to see where it all leads.
