Ours is a time ripe for tall tales. So Pete Beatty’s yarn about two brothers’ adventures in an imaginary 1837 Cleveland fits the bill. Neither the archaic speech nor the dubious claims of its characters feel out of place in an era when the simplest fact is questioned and debated ad absurdum. Yet, unlike the daily inanities which plague the citizenry in 2020, Beatty’s Cuyahoga (Scribner) is a faithful attempt to make his readers feel better.
I had to look up shinplasters and Lucifer matches to make sure Beatty didn’t make them up, but I wouldn’t have been disappointed if he had. He obviously relished the research necessary to bring his long ago midwest back to life. Despite their speech and pre-industrial mode of living, the citizens of Ohio City are not so different from us. They scheme, boast, and dream. Perhaps we don’t assume that the trees, rivers, and livestock are animated the same as we are, but a visitor from 1837 would think most of us are completely unhinged for interacting with inanimate devices as if they were our dear friends. The past has no monopoly on ignorant customs. Setting the action in another time, told in a wry semi-biblical argot, allows Beatty to fashion a fantasy with many contemporary overtones.
