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The Fathers We Fin
by Charles P. Ries.
Available from Charles P. Ries,
5821 W. Trenton Place, Milwaukee, WI 53213.
$13.00 includes postage.

Reviewed by Pablo Teasedale


  It is 3:30 a.m. and I am sitting in my apartment overlooking an empty Pacific Avenue.
The St. George is quiet tonight and so is the city of Santa Cruz. I have just finished The
Fathers We Find
and want to make a few comments about this 118-page novel.

  First, it was given to me by poet Nancy Gauquier who had read it and liked it. Second,
I met Charles not long ago here in town when he was the featured reader at The Wired
Wash Cafe, which is an important part of Santa Cruz’s (and California’s) poetry life. It
is a noisy laundromat with espresso machines and a dangerous restroom. “What,” I
asked myself, “is Charles P. Ries doing here?” At a party later, I learned he had been
imported by Christopher Robin (Zen Baby) and Brian Morrisey (Poesy). I barely got to
talk with Charles, but I was very interested in his poetry and his thought. Now having
read this novel, I understand why he seemed so interesting. He is.

  While I was reading I had an awareness occur twice that surprised me: I forgot I was
reading. The writing was so clear that it just seemed to be going into my consciousness
with no effort on my part. I decided that either Charles Ries is an excellent writer or he
had found a hole in my head just the right size to insert a nozzle to pour the information
into my brain. I guess it must be that he is an excellent writer.

  The novel deals with the difficult subject of fathers. Since I was both born and adopted,
I had two fathers, and I am a father now, so I know how confusing and profound both
having fathers and being a father can be. (Is!) But here in this memoir we see an iconic
father…a successful mink-farming pillar of the Catholic Church…a quiet and disturbingly
bound up man with very high standards…Charles’s father.

  That this highly intelligent, sensitive, and aware poet I met, and this almost scary (yet
strangely beautiful) father of his, had at one time almost come to blows did not surprise
me. And it really makes me wonder at how we are shaped by strong forces in our childhoods,
and at how hard it can be to discover that there is a much different entity coming into being
which somehow has to break free of the shapers and shape itself.

    This is an age-old story but it is told with such clarity that it is one of the best tellings. I
laughed, I cried, I am grateful. Another thing that happened to me (that I also liked) as I read,
was that I saw or felt or somehow knew and understood that the word “mink” and the term
“blackberry brandy” could be used in one sentence to re-create an exquisite juxtaposition…
one I can feel, smell, taste, see and…almost…hear. (There is mud in this story too.)

  This is a very, very good novel. A memoir. A difficult love story with many layers. Read it,
then give it to a friend. Learn about mink and blackberry brandy…and love.


  Pablo Teasdale’s first interview was with Raquel Welch when he was a sailor and
she was a new star. Since then, he has interviewed many artists formally and informally...
both well-known and unknown. Among the notables: Anaďs Nin, Bob Hope, Lyn Lifshin, James
Leo Herlihy and Brian Morissey. His drawings have been published in the U. S. A. and Germany.
His synthesizer compositions are used by poets and dancers in live and broadcast productions
internationally. Teasdale has been the subject of four documentaries and lives in Santa Cruz,
California. He is currently writing a memoir titled "Let Me Tell You About My Redundancy
Again."





 


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