June 2000
Gregory Gibson '67, Gone Boy: A Walkabout, New York, Kodansha International, 1999
I
belong to a campus book group that is unlike most such clubs.
It provides the guilt-free opportunity to read a variety of books
that might not otherwise come to my attention--without the obligation
to meet and talk about them. Words exchanged about the 10 titles
circulating this year are chance meetings in the halls or snack bar;
so the one-word "review" that came with Gone Boy when it
arrived at my desk--"Wow"--really caught my attention.
Perhaps I should end this review right there with that one word. It conveys so much about the power of this painful, startling, and ultimately redeeming work. Why should I urge you to read a man's narrative of his journey to find meaning in the trauma and tragedy of his son's violent death on a college campus?
You may remember the events of mid-December 1992 when a student, Wayne Lo, shot and killed two people and seriously wounded four others on the campus of Simon's Rock Early College in Great Barrington, Mass. One of those killed was Galen Gibson, son of author Greg Gibson '67 who has enlisted his intellect, wanderlust, and detective skills in the struggle to soothe his deeply wounded heart, thereby engaging the reader's intellect and heart. At the start of his quest, Gibson writes (pp. 14-15):
As the first weeks wore on, I figured out that if I concentrated on the worldly chain of causes I might finally work my way up to the God's Will part. Perhaps the work of sorting through all those events and their relationships would help me digest the huge lump of misery that God's Will had left on my plate. Thus I determined the pattern that was to serve me well over the next several years, as I attempted to recover from the death of my son. I would concentrate on the details, the facts, and trust that their greater meaning would emerge, of its own accord, in the end. It never occurred to me to doubt that there was a greater meaning.
The story reaches us on many levels, all of them finally linking us to Gibson in common humanity. He reaches me as a father who knows the limits of the protection I can offer my children, and he reaches me as a campus administrator who wonders whether I would have done any better at prevention or compassion, faced with the same horrors. He also reaches me as a citizen who feels impotent in the face of all the resistance to strengthening gun control.
As Greg Gibson made his walkabout, he talked to campus officials; the gun dealer who sold Wayne Lo the murder weapon; the psychiatrists who testified at his trial; students who knew Galen and Wayne; and, finally, even Wayne's parents. He considered whether he could visit and talk with Wayne in prison. Gibson did visit the prison from the outside (pp. 264-265):
I looked hard and long. But my new life was not to be seen. All there was, was a wall. A big, white, stupid wall. Behind it were piled-up ugly institutional brick buildings.... The vibe was bad, very bad. Wayne was in there somewhere, but he was lost in that morass of human sickness and misery.... What a foolish notion. I might as well have gone out in my backyard and stared at the cesspool for enlightenment.
According to an article in The New York Times (part 3 of a 4-part series "Rampage Killers," April 12), a correspondence has begun and continues between Greg and Wayne Lo. It seems inevitable that they will meet one day.
I am struck by the good this book does for its author; the reader; and, perhaps in the long run, both the killer and the nation if its elegant weight of words can tilt the scales toward not only firmer control of guns but also a more inclusive sense of our common humanity. Perhaps we can follow Greg Gibson's example of compassion and understanding, distilled from pain and rage: "It was not Galen, always so much with us, but this other, stolen, rocking creature who truly was the Gone Boy" (p. 259).
"He's [Wayne Lo] going to help me resolve my feelings about the person who murdered my son, and maybe I can help him, too," Gibson said in The New York Times. "It helps me feel I put something into the situation other than hatred and rage. If we do pull it off, it is like some kind of alchemy."
Gone Boy fully demonstrates Gibson's capacity to work a very powerful magic.
--Maurice Eldridge '61
Vice President for College and
Community Relations and Executive Assistant to the President
Dean Baker '80 and Mark Weisbrot, Social Security: The Phony Crisis, University of Chicago Press, 1999. The authors show that no economic, demographic, or actuarial basis exists for the widespread notion that the system needs to be fixed.
Beverly Lyon Clark '70 and Margaret R. Higgonet (eds.), Girls, Boys, Books, Toys, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. This collection of essays by experts on children's culture questions how the gender symbolism of children's culture is constructed and resisted.
John Kenneth White and Philip John Davies SP, Political Parties and the Collapse of the Old Orders, State University of New York Press, 1998. This book examines the transformations in the political parties of nations around the world since the end of the Cold War.
Peter Norton and John Goodman '60, Peter Norton's Inside the PC (8th ed.), SAMS, Macmillan Computer Publishing, 1999. Norton and Goodman explain the inner workings and underlying technologies of PCs.
Stephen Henighan '84, Assuming the Light: The Parisian Literary Apprenticeship of Miguel Angel Asturias, European Humanities Research Centre, 1999. This study explores the early academic writings, journalism, short fiction, and first major novel of Asturias, the first Spanish-American prose writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Jane (Stallman) Jaquette '64 and Sharon L. Wolchik, Women and Democracy, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. This book offers a unique look at the political experiences of women in two regions of the world--Latin America and Eastern and Central Europe--that have moved from authoritarian to democratic regimes.
Sister Mary Jean (Weir) Manninen '59, Living the Christian Story: The Good News in Worship and Daily Life, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2000. This book explores the continuing encounter with the Christian story through word and sacrament, showing how both shape the church community.
J.R. McNeill '75, Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World, Global Century Series, W.W. Norton and Co., 2000. The author argues that the 20th century's transformation of our biosphere will have a more profound effect on the human race than either of the world wars, the rise of communism, or the spread of literacy.
Roger M. Olien and Diana Davids Olien '64, Oil & Ideology: The Cultural Creation of the American Petroleum Industry, University of North Carolina Press, 2000. This study of the mythical history of the American oil industry shows how the culturally constructed history of oil has often resulted in poor policy, and it offers a new approach.
Nicole (Fischer) Rafter '62, Shots in the Mirror: Crime Films and Society, Oxford University Press, 2000. Criminologist Rafter examines the relationship between society and crime films from the perspectives of criminal justice, film history and technique, and sociology.
América Rodriguez '78, Making Latino News: Race, Language, Class, Sage Publications, 1999. By tracing the historical and commercial contexts of Latino-oriented news production, this book examines Latino news making as part of a larger narrative--the cultural productions and conceptions of Latinos.
Mary M. Solberg '68, Compelling Knowledge: A Feminist Proposal for an Epistemology of the Cross, State University of New York Press, 1997. The author brings together the best of contemporary feminist philosophy with 16th-century theologian Martin Luther.
Sheldon Weeks '54, Evaluation of Tirelo Setshaba: Final Report, Government Printer, Gaborone, 1997. This book evaluates Tirelo Setshaba, the Botswana national service scheme. Taking into account the positive economic and social changes, including the expansion of educational institutions, the report concludes that the scheme should be abolished.
Claudia Whitman and Julie (Biddle) Zimmerman '68 (eds.), Frontiers of Justice, Vol. 3: The Crime Zone, Biddle Publishing Co., 2000. In the third volume of the Frontiers of Justice series, 14 prisoners discuss the factors that led them to commit their crimes and offer their opinions on possible deterrents.
Robin (Smith) Chapman '64, Banff Dreaming, Fireweed Press, 1998. The poems on this CD are recited by the poet to express "the wordless parts within us, the deep places of feeling."
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