A Winter’s Vigil: Being a Novel Depicting the Involuntary Apprenticeship of Theodore Bowman

Norval Rindfleisch
iUniverse (2007)
ISBN 9780595430277
Reviewed by Dr. Michael Philliber for Reader Views (1/08)

 

The transition from teenage years to adulthood can be disillusioning as well as transformational. Norval Rindfleisch portrays an imaginative example of this movement in his fictional memoir “A Winter’s Vigil: Being a Novel Depicting the Involuntary Apprenticeship of Theodore Bowman.” The story unfolds in a Midwestern city sometime around the early 1960s, with Theodore Bowman on center stage. Theodore, called Ted throughout, is an unattractive and aimless senior at the parochial school. With no real ambition, he applies for a job at the local movie theater, The Imperial. It’s here that the story of his transition truly begins to unfold, and the adult he will become begins to take shape. The book is full of humorous, thoughtful, and sometimes sassy dialogue along with plenty of adolescent action.

Some of the bright spots in the book are the vigorous dialogue between Ted and a university attending co-worker, Beverly; as well as with Ted and the aging manager of the theater, Phyllis. Beverly is regularly trying to expand Ted’s mental capacities by posing philosophical dilemmas she has picked up at the University. In one lively discussion she lays before Ted the question of whether a tree that falls in the woods makes any sound if no one is there to perceive it. Ted’s replies and the debate that ensues were so comically witty that I found myself rolling on the floor in laughter.

Ted’s conversations with Phyllis are on another plane. Usually they are the playful bantering of an older, mature woman putting up with a young, idealistic adolescent; they are also a part of the shaping and molding for Ted’s adult life. There are moments of warm friendship that open up in their exchanges, especially, as they both find that they have poured themselves into a losing business endeavor, the old movie theater.

Much of the material in the narrative really pulls together toward the latter third of the story, where Ted is grappling with free will and external, uncontrollable conditions imposed on one’s life. Some of Ted’s observations and conclusions are disappointing, and some are laughably intelligent. The book ends rather anticlimactically and without the fantasy-story’s “They lived happily ever after” motif.

There were two annoyances that detracted from the story. The first was the unnecessary profanity that cropped up throughout the tale. The second was the minor-to-serious printing and editing glitches. Besides the occasional use of the wrong verb tense, there were numerous misprints. The worst was on pages 72-3 where in a discussion between Ted and Beverly, all of Beverly’s comments are completely missing. The only evidence that there ought to be words on the page are the quotation marks with lots of empty white space between them.

When I finished “A Winter’s Vigil” I thought that if the editorial and printing glitches could be cleaned up, and the profanity dropped, I would enjoy giving this book to my young boys as a superb family discussion starter. Even though the book is written for adults, I could imagine several wonderful conversations with my sons over the characters, their discussions, decisions and discoveries.

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