Review: Klune is not for everyone, but if you like his writing...wow.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 18, 2014
I’m a klunatic. I confess. Any crazy-ass stuff that T.J. Klune spews at me, I just swallow it down and beg for more. I didn’t know what the plot was going to be (and neither will you, until you read it), but I knew how it was going to read.This is not a totally apples-to-apples comparison, but Klune’s “Bear, Otter and the Kid” series is stylistically akin to Michael Chabon’s quirky writing style in his best-seller Telegraph Avenue. It is dizzying, hilarious, frustrating, powerful, absurd, and ultimately either drugs you into submission or pisses you off irredeemably.I am in the former category. I loved the first two books in this series, and indeed have loved all of T.J. Klune’s writing. His quirky, passionate style ensnares me instantly, and drags me into the rollercoaster minds of his characters; my empathy taps are turned on “full” and my heart beats in rhythm with theirs as their stories unfold.The crucial lesson we learn in The Art of Breathing (which could be called “Tyson Grows Up,” is that Tyson, Bear McKenna’s little brother, is more like his big brother than he expected—or would ever have wanted to be.I found myself wondering if one could read this book without having read the other two. I think one could, because Klune is skilled at reintroducing crucial details from the past books that give the reader a rough sketch of the entire family saga. I’m not recommending it, mind you, just noting that it’s possible.The third book starts when Ty (the Kid) is still, well, a kid. The main structural difference here from the other volumes is that the narrative spans just over a decade in the lives of Bear, Otter and the Kid—along with the lives of the people who are the family-of-choice that Otter and Bear have cobbled together in the first two books. The latest addition to the family is Dominic Miller, whom Ty befriends when he’s nine and Dom is fifteen. We saw something of Dominic’s story in “Who we Are,” but his endearing character becomes central in the third book.Where the first two books were about Bear and Otter becoming a family and protecting Ty, in The Art of Breathing Ty learns that even the most loving family can’t prevent him from making his own mistakes. He has to leave for college; he has to leave the safety of Bear and Otter’s loving embrace. Ty’s journey is as fraught with angst and wry humor and outright heartbreak as were his parents’ journeys (and yes,his brother, Bear is also his parent). Ty will have to leave the Kid behind, and possibly relive some of the worst pain of his young life, in order to learn how to breathe.I admit that the overthinking that runs in the McKenna/Thompson family makes me want to tear my hair out with frustration. Klune telegraphs Ty’s bad choices before he makes them, so that the reader (like viewers of B horror flicks did in the 50s) can yell “don’t do that! don’t go there!—to no avail. We begin to realize that, for all of the love and nurturing Ty has gotten from his extended kinship circle, there are deep issues he has not yet dealt with; damage that must be healed, or at least sutured, before he can really become a man in full.I read the book obsessively in the course of a business trip; some of you might need to read it in smaller parcels, because the intensity can be overwhelming. But you cannot read T.J. Klune’s prose without fully understanding the emotional tidal wave that these lovable, loving people experience.It takes a rare gift to write this way.Oh, T.J. has promised a fourth volume. Damn straight, given the way he ended this. Holy crap!