Review 190: Cypress Lake by Joe Basara

Cypress Lake
by Joe Basara
CreateSpace
Copyright © June 2010
ISBN: 1453636528
302 Pages
$11.47 Paperback Amazon.com

Cypress Lake has been labeled a “coming of age” story, and I can certainly see why after reading it but Joe Basara digs just a bit deeper into the psyche of his lead character, Owen Cloud, to attempt to give his reader much more than that.

Owen is unattractive, “homely,” and his life needs direction. He returns to Florida in his twenties at the urging of a childhood friend.  He gets a job as an orderly in a hospital, but is still at a loss in life.

I remember being like that in my early twenties.  I still lacked maturity, but then again I thought I was too mature for my age, especially now when I look back at myself and compare that to twenty-year olds I see these days. I was in college and also working full time, and was completely and utterly afraid of what was going to happen tomorrow.  And then love walked in the door.

For Owen, he thinks women also find him unattractive, but as the old saying goes, beauty is only skin deep. Just when Owen isn’t looking for love, it finds him. Owen had a girlfriend before Florida whose been wanting to reconnect with him. He meets Marianne, a nurse at the hospital, whose lost her husband due to an accident and now looking for some companionship.

But Owen finds himself falling in love with a different nurse named Tina, before he finally decides to try blind dating with a girl named Tammy. It’s the classic tale of bachelorhood of a twenty-something, right?

Basara builds on Owen as a character using hundreds of movie quotes, TV show scenes, musical lyrics, actors and actresses, commercial jingles, and more.  As Owen tries to be nostalgic, he constantly relates the event to something he’s remembered from a television show, song, or movie.  I found this to be just a bit too distracting from the relationships Owen has with the female characters and with other minor characters in the story as well.

Another problem is his age.  Would someone in their twenties really be reminded of a scene from Hee Haw or Wizard of Oz when something memorable happens that jolts our brain?  Perhaps, but I found all the historical references to just be getting in the way.  For a character to be so lost and have such low self esteem, has he had that much life experience to recall? Probably not.

Therefore, this should be more of a nostalgic piece rather than “coming of age,” but our character would be too young for that.  Otherwise, he’s an encyclopedia of boob tube and musical knowledge!  Here’s just one example of the multiple pop culture references Owen often relates to in a single scene:

But…the yellow rose of Texas or the red rose of Robert Burns, weren’t they both the same inside the heart?  Because a rose is a rose is a rose, as Gertrude Stein said, and by any other name would smell as sweet, as Shakespeare’s Juliet said.

“Oh Scarlet, Scarlet,” he sighed, calling to the girl in the Churchill Downs Mansion, his mind drifting off into Gone with the Wind.  And then he sighed the Southern Belle’s reply, “Oh, Red, Red…”

Such were the riches of King Solo Man’s Mind. Because this life, so sad and dreary, needed a little Beverly Soprano coloring now and then, just to liven it up a little,  especially with happiness being so far, far away.

I was impressed at Mr. Basara’s talent at squeezing so many cultural references into a piece, but I think perhaps that would have made for a better nonfiction historical book with emphasis on that.  Here, it only steals the spotlight that should be on his central character, Owen, whose already vying hard for attention.

Other than that, this book is practically flawless.  No major editing issues.  The story is nicely paced.  And there is a good story in here outside of all the “remember when’s” and “that reminds me of the time…”  Basara definitely has a book, and a lead character, he should be proud of.