Thin Blue Smoke

Second Reading:

Summary: A meandering novel set in Kansas City with BBQ as a central setting.

In 2012 my favorite novel was Thin Blue Smoke. I ran across Doug Worgul on Bluesky and decided I needed to revisit the novel. I very much remembered the three main characters, LaVerne Williams, AB Clayton, and Ferguson Glen. There are a host of other supporting characters and part of the joy of the novel is getting to go back in time to give context to why those characters are who they are. I have previously written about Thin Blue Smoke in a way that was pretty vague and without spoilers. But I am going to give away more of the story this time. If you don't want spoilers, read this version. If you are okay with spoilers, then you can keep reading.

LaVerne Williams is a Texas-born former baseball player. After a serious sholder injury in 1967, he is let go by the Kansas City Athletics. He is young, married with an infant and without a job or any prospects. The novel is set in the 1990s and by this time LaVerne has become established with a small BBQ resturant with a number of regulars, but little recognition.

AB Clayton wandered lost into the restaurant, commonly known as Smoke Meat, when he was 15. LaVerne offered him a job on the spot and by the main timeline of the book he has been working at Smoke Meat for about 20 years and his whole life is wrapped up in the work and the people of the resturant.

Father Freguson Glen is a theology professor and Episcopal priest. In the 1960s he wrote a pulitzer prize nominated novel but nothing else of note since. He is an alcoholic and lost in many ways, but he has come to find the people of Smoke Meat are a type of family.

The other characters, including Angela, LaVerne's wife, are largely supporting characters. It isn't that they are not important to the story, but they have less developed back stories or they are the "villans" of the story. Thin Blue Smoke moves back and forth through time to help us understand how the characters came to be who they are. This is not an "excuse" for their actions, but context for understanding them.

The characters are given choices throughout the book. AB Clayton grew up with an abusive, addicted, and neglegant mother. He is naive to the way the world works outside of his experience, but he still has hope. Father Glen knows all the ways of the world. He has been given everything, wealth, access, knowledge, but he is lacking some of what AB takes for granted.

This is a novel that is more about the character and the ideas than the plot. I love that type of novel, but not everyone does. There is a climax and conclusion, but because this is a book that is in large part about the problem of evil and choice, the book is more about the journey than the conclusion.

I know that my attraction to Ferguson Glen is connected to my identification with him and his background and thinking, but he is the character that I most identify with. He knows his theology and practices. Throughout the book he often comments on theological ideas and practical pastoral care and does so with great skill. But his desire throughout the book is to see God. I am reading Fleming Rutledge’s book on Epiphany (she is a retired Episcopal priest just like Father Glen is) and she is talking about epiphany as focusing on God’s glory and Christ’s manifestations as an incarnate being.

When I read that, I thought immediately of Father’s Glen’s desire for God. In the book Father Glen is attracted to the Black church and a more Pentecostal expression of faith, but that isn’t the type of faith he has grown up with. Part of the solution in the book is to find real love so that he can understand what pure love is and know that God’s love for him is greater than that. But I also think that Fleming Rutledge if she were his spiritual director might point him toward understanding that God’s glory isn’t about an expressive emotional response, but about an awareness of the greatness of God. Glen has no issues theologically with God or with his history of radical social action in the civil rights movement. His issue is that those things are all theoretical not personal. His father and mother were distant. His brief marriage was annulled. He takes responsibility for his parts in those relationships, but we are shaped by those around us. And when the love around us is always conditional, and the church we attend demonstrates a conditional love, it is natural that we understand all love as conditional.

LaVerne and AB both had difficult childhoods. LaVerne's mother was addicted to drugs and absent and he was raised by his grandmother and her brother. For all of the challenges in his life, his family, especially his great uncle, were there for him to give him a second (or third) chance. Part of the reality of the book is that while not everyone makes good choices in the face of difficult situations, some people have more support in those situations than others. Angela and LaVerne's son passes away at 19 and AB becomes a surrogate son to them. AB's own mother is largely absent. Everyone needs help to mature. AB is naturally kind and good, but being kind and good does not mean the world is kind and good back. Without Angela and LaVerne, AB would likely end up like another side character who didn't have a support system.

LaVerne himself goes through a number of things trying to find his way in the world, but his uncle kept being there for him. Angela was also there for him, but part of what she came to understand was that she could not save him on her own. LaVerne had to take responsibility for himself even as she could continue to love and support him as part of drawing him toward a more healthy path.

Glen grapples with the concept of God's blessing throughout the book. Theologically he is resistant to claiming God's blessing because of what that can mean for those who do not have what we consider God's blessing. If you have good weather and claim it as God's blessing then what does that mean when you do not have good weather? He shifts somewhat throughout the book because he comes to see that seeing God at work is part of seeking after hope. This is not a book of simple theological answers. This is a book of grappling, the type of grappling that we all need to do throughout life.

This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/thin-blue-smoke-by-doug-worgul-2/

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Short review: Some stories are written to be savored. This meandering story is loosely connected to a BBQ joint in Kansas City. But that is just the setting. It is about the way that people come into one another's lives and make an impact. Both for good an ill. LaVerne is the owner of the BBQ place and a former pro baseball player. AB is his assistant and the best friend of Raymond, LaVerne's son that has passed away. Glen is an alcoholic Episcopal Priest and professor and the wise man that cannot take his own advice (think Brennan Manning). There are many other characters and the story jumps through time and from character to character giving the reader background to all of their stories of life, of redemption.

While clearly a Christian novel, this is the type of Christian novel that does not often get written. It has real people, not two dimensional cutouts. They have real struggles with sin and understanding life. They do not all believe the 'right' thing. I hope to see more by this author.

A much longer review and some quotes from that book are at my blog at http://bookwi.se/thin-blue-smoke-by-d...