As we learn more about Chester Patterson, an Army kid with a kind, reserved father and a gregarious, gorgeous mother, we recognize stages and feelings from our own childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. Through 16 episodic narratives from Chester’s viewpoint, arranged chronologically, Chester (or “Chet” as he likes to be called) develops from a nerdy boy with romantic fantasies to a sometimes-cocky teenager with strong black-and-white viewpoints, and then to a slightly obsessive and not quite mature college-age student.

Chester is fully developed, and Moyer also succeeds in depicting fine points of Chester’s relationship with his parents and with other girls/women. The women in Chester’s world are provocative and fascinating, from his mother to Mrs. Kincaid and, later, Frenchie and Seema and Calliope. Chester has vastly different experiences with each of these women, but he seems to find each of them challenging and alluring. The pages are taut with sexual tension in many stories, reflecting the common experiences of a young boy and man, yet there is always something troubling or unresolved in Chester’s every encounter.

Amid Chester’s mental and personality development, Moyer weaves details of military life and the political and racial tensions of the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s seamlessly into the backdrop. Some of these social upheavals directly impact the storyline (“Native Sons”), while others appear more ephemerally or as a vehicle for conversation. Moyer’s diction is reflective and his dialogue excellent, especially in later chapters. The stories move along briskly but deliciously, making the reader reluctant to come to the end of one narrative but hungrily eager to get to the next one. The best thing about finishing one of Chester’s narratives is the way in which Moyer wraps up the story: half the book’s endings are stunning, from the poignant to the comical.

Moyer brings Chester’s world vividly to life in these tales through emotional depth and subtlety, verisimilitude of dialogue, and dynamic characterization. The book is also rich in literary and cultural allusions. For this reviewer, reading The Chester Chronicles was like watching The Wonder Years: a rich, moving, and fascinating account of a bygone era, a collection of interrelated stories that you never want to end. Here’s hoping Moyer will produce a third book in the near future.

A Note on Production

Like some other Permanent Press books, The Chester Chronicles has a striking front cover design. A brown or sepia-tone image of what appears to be a 1950s car (surely either a Ford or Chevy) racing down a highway is the central focus point; the blurred, pixilated image evokes the style of the book: Chester is looking back on his youth with the haze of memory, in which some images are still boldly present, even if the finer details are not readily accessible. The aqua-and-white title reminds one that these were popular colors/accents for cars (and who knows what else) during the book’s time period. The back cover is unadorned and features only the typical quotations from other authors; however, it’s possible that the final version has a different back cover. Again like other Permanent Press books, this paperback has French flaps, which are attractive for displaying summaries and author information but also make it difficult for the book to lie flat when closed (unless it is flipped upside down).

The internal layout is plain but consistent, with a readable typeface and no running heads. It was easy to hold and read on the Metro, and the paper stock was bright enough that one could actually read the text while standing on the platform. Overall, this bound galley was nicely presented and only had a few typos here and there. ( )

As an avid reader and wannabe writer I love following Martin Shepherd’s Permanent Press blog—the Cockeyed Pessimist. It was there that I learned of my first Permanent Press author, Chris Knopf, and a free gift from the blog began my great enjoyment his Sam Aquillo books. Knopf’s mysteries are beautifully written, with very real characters, humanly flawed and powerfully intriguing, perfectly matching the flawed and glorious scenery of the wrong side of the Hamptons—a great introduction to a fine publishing house.

When the blog, which has often discussed the vagaries of publishing, prizes and reviews, included a request for people to review pre-publication copies of 2010’s books I was eager to try, but completely surprised and honored to find myself picked. The Chester Chronicles by Kermit Moyer, coming out in February 2010, is the first of three books they sent me, and a truly amazing read.

I should mention here that I really like short stories. The only thing I have against them is they take so long to read. A good short story will leave me on a precipice at its conclusion, breathless, wanting to know more yet somehow agreeing that this was the perfect place to end—like standing in front of the Mona Lisa, knowing she’s never going to smile and knowing that’s exactly how it’s meant to be. It’s those pauses for breath that make short story books read so slowly for me. But The Chester Chronicles is a novel—really it is—with all the advantages of a tale well-told, plus the treasures of reading short stories; each chapter beautifully crafted and complete, each ending leaving me delighted and satisfied, and eager for more.

There’s a narrator who fast becomes a real person; I hang on his every word. Chester (or Chet) Patterson, grows from gawky elementary-school kid, through junior high and high school, travelling the world as the army moves his father around, and heading for college and beyond. Meanwhile history and his family go through the many crises and tragedies of the 50s and 60s. And people, not just Chester, grow and change, becoming more than they seemed before and filling time and space as well as pages.

Most beautiful of all, to me, is a story set soon after JFK’s assassination. Chester gets to meet a movie hero of his, and conversations and musings on heroes end with stunning realization as he speaks on the phone to someone he felt had persistently betrayed him in the past. Heroism suddenly takes on a deeper and more powerful meaning for the reader.

More than a coming-of-age novel, though Chester indeed goes through all the traditional steps—love, drink, sex and embarrassment among others; more than a memoir of an era, though the era, its books, its songs and its events are all brought to memorable life; more than a set of short stories, though each carries the stamp of lingering images and well-timed completeness; Kermit Moyer’s novel transcends any genre I define. A quote from Dubus inside the cover suggests “..life is a collection of stories,” so maybe that’s it. Told in first person present tense, with past memories intervening and future dreams, immediate yet just distant enough, funny and poignant, innocent and scheming, it’s one of the few books I’ve wanted to reread almost as soon as I finished.

I’m so glad I offered to review some books for Permanent Press, and so very glad they chose me and chose this as one of the ones to send me. ( )

This is the story of Chester "Chet" Patterson as he grows from adolescent to young man. As other reviewers have said, I also found the sexual content of the adolescent chapters to be a bit uncomfortable, but I would imagine that's the point--it's an awkward, embarrassing time of life for any kid, and all the more so when looking back on it from later in life.

Overall, I liked the stories that make up Chester's story. They give a great sense of time and place--events, places and people are vividly described, and the emotional responses of the people in the stories seem realistic to me. I'm reminded a little of John Knowles but I can't quite put my finger on why. ( )

The Chester Chronicles
Author: Kermit Moyer
ISBN: 978-1-57962-194-0, Pages: 232, $26.00 Publication Date: February 1, 2010, Cloth, Fiction, Published by: The Permanent Press

Writing about your life, which you know best, can be in many forms. Autobiographies are done without embellishment, but when you fictionalize your life you get the opportunity for a ‘do-over’ to correct your mistakes. Kermit Moyer, in “The Chester Chronicles”, has created Chester Patterson, a mirror image or doppelganger, of his own life.

An Army brat tells the stories of how he traveled through life until the ripe old age of 21. Chet describes many places where he had lived and was schooled on the facts of life. His relationships with young girls and young women during his growing-up escapades in various cultures around the world, makes this a more mature read, while still in good taste, and with very little vulgarity.

Each episode is complete and could stand alone, but when read with an eye towards what is coming next, the reader soon realizes that all is connected in a clean cut manner. Chet grows in stature throughout the book and becomes a person who would make his worldly military father proud by being conscious of social issues. Discussed are the improprieties of the riots in Los Angeles, attitudes of people he meets in college, and a bartender in Winter Park, Florida who expresses negativity toward blacks. At all times, Chet defends people of color and demonstrates his distaste for prejudice.

An incident regarding his early experience with alcohol while in high school was very moving and funny. Chester Patterson discovers that his father is now treating him as an adult, even though he is only 16. Underage drinking is not condoned, but when Chet gets into a problem of locking his keys in his dad’s trunk after having a beer, the first person he calls for help is his dad. His friends are surprised that he is not grounded for his actions like they were. A strong bond with his father eventually develops and is sustained throughout the rest of the stories.

Kermit Moyer has an advanced educational background running through a PhD in English, very similar to the educational track which his character was currently pursuing. “The Chester Chronicles” is Moyer’s second book. “Tumbling” was his first book and was a collection of short stories receiving wide acclaim.

Well-written in a first-person personae, Chester brings to life the trials and tribulations occurring in the 50’s and 60’s. This book is not just for younger people, but is geared towards those who lived through that era.

This book is highly recommended as a good work of literature and entertainment.

What an interesting look at mid-twentieth century childhood in America! I'm still thinking about various episodes chronicled in this collection of stories . . . some hauntingly heartbreaking, and some hilariously familiar and funny. Having been a moved-around kid, too, the search for one's place -- at home, at school, in the world -- is a familiar one. ( )