Review of Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream

By Linnea Lannon

As a book reviewer, I have a vested interest in believing book reviews matter.  As the person who compiles the best-seller list I have my doubts.  Clearly, Malice is not selling because it got good reviews.  People buy Danielle Steel, or John Grisham, or countless Star Wars books not because of the reviews but because they like the formula.  So be it.

But I do think reviews can make a difference, and my own reading proves it.  Yes, I read the reviews-- you'd better believe it.  With hundreds of books pouring into this office weekly, I need help.  So I rely on advance reviews to help decide what might be review-worthy.  Occasionally a review comes along that is so glowing, so persuasive that I paw through my teetering stacks to find this precious treasure.

Such was the case with Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream (St Martin's, $22.95) by John Derbyshire, a Brit well traveled in Asia and now living in Long Island.  I can only assume his house was the scene of a raucous celebration March 10, or as soon thereafter as Jonathan Yardley's review arrived.

Yardley, the widely respected Washington Post book reviewer, loved this novel concluding that "In more than three decades of professional book reviewing I have found perhaps a half dozen books that came out of the unknown and gave me surprise and pleasure beyond measure. Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream most emphatically is one of those."

Words of praise, indeed.  And words that have been heeded.  St Martin's reports that the novel has been doing extremely well in terms of rate of sales-- in other words, it's not selling as many copies as a big best seller, but it sells regularly and steadily.   Robert Teicher, who buys fiction for the Borders chain, says steady sales have been hampered only by by the publisher running out of books.  (More are coming.)  A positive New York Times book review in mid-April helped, too.

And what of the strangely titled first novel?  It is charming.

It is told-- in paragraph chunks-- by T.C. Chai, a 48-year-old financial analyst for a New York bank.  Chai is a survivor, and he tells of his life-- including three years as a Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution, a night-time swim to Hong Kong where he learned English and numbers and fell in love-- with a coolness that reflects his methodical nature and his clear vision of himself and the world.

Chai lives on Long Island with his beautiful young wife, Ding ("I am glad I married so late. My first wife is my Second Wife ... I have all the advantage of a Second Wife, without alimony or visitation problems.") and baby girl.  Ding indulges her husband's penchant for intellectual enthusiasms-- this time it is Calvin Coolidge, whom, Chai decides, represents the best of America.  He sets about learning everything there is to know about the 30th president of the United States.

He also sets about finding his long-lost great passion, Selina, who left him in Hong Kong for an arranged marriage 20 years before. He has not forgotten her and now learns she is closer than he thought (Boston, in fact).  Surely, the embers of their love can/must be revived?

Ultimately, Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream is a mid-life crisis novel, but leavened with a kightness not usually found in such a subject (David Lodge's Therapy is the only other that readily comes to mind).  Derbyshire persuaded me with Chai's voice and delighted me with Ding's solution to her husband's problem.

Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream may not be the best book I've ever read, but it gives me good reason to keep reading reviews.