Tinkers

1. Summary

Tinkers is the story of three New England generations: son, father, and grandfather. It is about time and memory, life and death.

George who faces imminent death looks back on lives of his father, Howard and his own. He had impoverished childhood living in a bitter, cold area. His father was a peddler/tinker who traveled far to backwoods, and his mother was frustrated and strict with raising her kids. He witnessed his father's epileptic seizure during which his finger was bitten by his father, and this experience traumatized him.

Howard, who had assumed that his wife's silence meant her kindness and tolerance, was in despair and did not come back home when he saw a brochure of a mental hospital that his wife had placed that morning. He moved to Philadelphia and started over a new life.

Young Howard's father, who was a church minister, showed signs of mental illness. One day he was taken away from home and Howard did not see his father again.

The last thing George remembers was Christmas dinner in 1953, when Howard had a short visit to George's family after tracking his first family.

 

2. Reaction

One dominant question has been lingering in my frustrated mind all through the reading: what is the writer trying to convey? On top of that, I had no idea what was going on except some anecdotes related to Hick Gilbert's decayed tooth, Howard's fit at Christmas dinner, and George's runaway. There are 191 pages, but if I understand one third of it, I think I am lucky enough.

Howard seems to be sympathetic with feeble creatures like wild flowers and plants because they represent life and freedom, which are elusive for him. He is poverty-ridden, which is a prison from which he hardly escape. Besides, he suffers from incurable epilepsy. All these things make him depressed and naturally lead him to ponder over death and evanescence.

The last scene of the story is impressive. What George remembers after all the memories is his father's unexpected visit. I believe this memory helps him reconcile with his father and rest in peace.

If life is so desolate and full of hardship that I have to wade through it just like the man on the book cover, it is heavyhearted. But I want to have a hope that at the end of the grueling journey in knee-deep snow, I will reach my home where loved ones are waiting for me sitting around a warm fireplace. Hopefully, life will be something I will smile at on my deathbed when I will be reflecting on.