From across the sea
I received a missive today from a frequent and treasured correspondent, a long time emigrant of the United States. I hope that I do not put that friendship at risk by sharing with you, but I don’t believe I will. God bless you, John, thank you, and keep ‘em coming.
You always impress us with the depth and reality of Bob Skinner and the characters around him.. With FUNERAL NOTE
you have truly outdone yourself. It’s brilliant characterization throughout, set in an intriguing plot. Your literary “experiment”
to get inside these characters’ heads works beautifully, familiar as they are to me by now. I was most intrigued. While i do
admire him, I’m not sure I’d want Bob near my daughters. Socially, I mean.
In addition, I re-read many times the few paragraphs on PP 60 and 61, where you develop Aileen’s thinking about her
differences with Bob Skinner. I’m with Skinner in their argument. I wonder if you based some of the “gridlock”
aspects of their opposing mindsets on the current gridlock in the U.S. Congress, where ideology is conflicting head-on
with pragmatism and common sense, with nothing good ever decided. (God help the U.S. if Obama gets another four
years come November.)
I note with interest your frequent references to rugby, using it as a characterization device, implying, I believe, a
certain “bigness” and “roughness.” As a former rugger player at Watsons and Strathallan, and in “rugby sevens”
throughout the Border towns, I wonder if your American readers get the point. Only today is rugby getting any national
TV exposure over here. By the way, my cousin Graham Young, now aging in Edinburgh, was capped as Scotland’s
scrum-half year’s back. Dad’s old pal, my “uncle George” Murray, was a power in the Scottish Rugby Union back then.
Sir Garth might remember him, as Courtney Morrison (a magnificent Watsonian forward) surely would have.
I cry for Scotland. A note from a friend recently visiting talks about “Hardly once, in any cafe, railway tube station,
restaurant, hotel, gas staion did we encounter a British employee. Every low paid service worker was Eastern
European, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Pakistani or other Asian, though they all seemed to work hard. Everything
has changed, and I’m not sure for the better.” She could have written the same about California or New York. We “Anglos”
are becoming the minority here.
I note you are in Spain, I hope their frightening economic problems don’t adversely affect your stay there. I assume
you still call quaint and peaceful Gullane home. I recall the week my Dad — G.H.P. “Podge” Alexander — wardened
at Muirfield’s 9th during The Open. He would only handle the 9th. “It’s closest to the bar,” he said..
Best regards, and much admiration,
John (now approaching 87).
