Coolidge, John Calvin

Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream: A Novel

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A Great Book Club Book
Good Read or Good Book?
An intriguing book that more than justifies the title
First off, a 'thank you' to previous reviewers here!
I Couldn't Put It Down

Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream: A Novel
John Derbyshire
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0312156499

Amazon.com

John Derbyshire took an interesting risk with this first-person novel written in the voice of Chai, a former Red Guard from Northeastern China who fled his strife-ridden country by swimming to Hong Kong, eventually making his way to the United States. Happily married and living in Long Island, he has developed an obsession for Calvin Coolidge, whose low-key, laissez-faire approach to government makes him sound to Chai like the ideal Confucian leader. Through Chai, Derbyshire offers insights on the difference between China, where citizens are crushed by the weight of a long and enduring history, and the United States, where a relative lack of history gives its citizens the opportunity to endlessly remake themselves. All this is wrapped in a plot that has Chai flirting dangerously with thoughts of reviving a long-lost relationship with a woman from his past.

Book Description

This is a magical novel of a Chinese immigrant's coming to terms with himself, his marriage, and America--and the unlikely moral force that guides his life.Chai is middle-aged, a disillusioned formed Red Guard who escaped China for Hong Kong and then America, where he works in New York as a banker. He and his wife, Ding, are the parents of an infant and enjoy a contented marriage; he develops a fond obsession with President Calvin Coolidge, the taciturn New Englander whose wry wit and wisdom delights Chai. One day, a chance discovery leads him astray: He learns that a lover from his youth is now in Boston, living with her husband and their son. The son is Chai's very image, and the staid banker is inflamed by the implications of the resemblance. Confused by his emotions, he becomes determined to revive the affair. How Ding schemes to win back her wayward husband--and teach him the necessary truths about love--forms the plot and beguiling conclusion to John Derbyshire's tale.

Customer Reviews:

A Great Book Club Book.......2005-08-05

My husband and I bought this book simply because we happen to live in one of Calvin Coolidge's old homes. We didn't really expect all that much. Boy were we surprised. I immediately recommended the book to my book club.

Let me say something about my book club: we've been together for almost ten years and we're made up for thirteen stong-minded women ranging in age from 30-something to 80-something. This is one of the few books we have unanimously loved. In fact, we enjoyed it so much that we wrote the author a letter inviting him to return to Northampton. He did and it was a joy to meet him.

Rita Bleiman
author "Dirty Tricks"

Good Read or Good Book?.......2005-04-20

I was telling a friend who was once my English professor at Cal Berkeley that Seeing was the best novel I'd read in a long time. (Unfortunately, there is currently little time for novel reading.) She asked, "Good book or good read?" I sort of went "Huh," but have been mulling over the question ever since. The answer: good read, emphatically. Swift, short and constantly entertaining in its transitions of place and time, and overlay of memory, Seeing is a true page-turner. Good book? I think the answer here is also yes. Derbyshire, who I presume from his name to be a Caucasian, does a pretty convincing job as an Asian narrator, even capturing Chai's reflexive smugness toward women, particularly his wife Ding. The pitch for the rehabilitation of Calvin Coolidge does not convince me; he still seems a simple man for simpler times whose values are of a more limited guidance than the author implicitly argues. At the same time, the observations on China, particularly the excesses of the Red Guard, and on a self-absorbed and often frivolous America as seen through a recent, successful immigrant's eyes ring very true. And you can't help but enjoy Ding's wiles as she brings Chai to live Coolidge's maxims.

An intriguing book that more than justifies the title.......2005-03-09

There are other unusual characters in literature, but surely the protagonist of this book is right up there for dynamic range of experiences and interests. He is a former Red Guard Chinese American banker whose also an amateur etymologist and American history lover. When he's drawn toward a tryst with a long lost love only his determined wife can save him and only Silent Cal (in a dream) can possibly advise him.

I was disappointed when my aquaintance with this interesting man came to an end.

First off, a 'thank you' to previous reviewers here!.......2004-12-23

Until recently, my only acquaintance with Mr. Derbyshire was in his role as a somewhat disagreeable controversialist in "National Review" magazine. Then, I noticed his most recent book (as of this posting), "Prime Obsession", a non-fiction account of the work of 19th century German mathematician Bernhard Riemann, whose prime number theorum remains one of the biggest unsolved problems in mathematics. Through the capsule biography of the author, I found out the existance of this book and consulted the reviews here.

Having read "Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream", I can say that it fully lives up to the sometimes-extravagant praise posted here. The book has a quirky charm all its own, not least because of the first-person voice of its hero, Chai, a winning and fascinating personality. Since the plot has been fully discussed in other reviews here, I will limit myself to a few random observations.

--Chai's account of his participation in the Red Guards as a teenager reads like a chiller out of Chen Jo-Hsi's book, "The Execution of Mayor Yin, and Other Tales of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" His witnessing of a gang-rape (which he feigns participation in) shames him and destroys at a stroke any loyalty to the Party he may have had. This starts him on his long road to America.

--Like Joseph Conrad in England, Chai masters the intricacies of English while in America. His ironic and insightful observations of the United States, China, and Hong Kong (before the PRC took over) are fun to read and dead-on.

--The long-dead Calvin Coolidge appears to give some dry and intelligent advice. Mr. Derbyshire manages to squash the old legend of "Silent Cal" as unintelligent and indolent. While the author perhaps spreads it a mite too thick, it is still a useful and entertaining corrective. (I hold with the political scientist who believes that Mr. Coolidge's apparent indolence was the result of a deep--perhaps clinical--depression at the death of his 16-year old son, Calvin Jr. from septicemia caused by an infected blister on his foot that had been raised playing tennis on the White House lawn.)

All of this is just by-the-by, however. The book was simply a delight and I urge anyone whose interest has been piqued by these comments to read it just as I did.

I Couldn't Put It Down.......2004-10-11

All the other reviewers are right on about this book. It is hard for me to find any books that hold my interest or fun to read. This was different. I highly recommend this book for easy and fun reading!

Calvin Coolidge and the Coolidge Era: Essays on the History of the 1920s

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Calvin Coolidge and the Coolidge Era: Essays on the History of the 1920s

Manufacturer: Library of Congress
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0844409227

Book Description

These twelve essays, originally presented to a 1995 Library of Congress symposium, seek to reassess the history of the 1920s in accordance with the latest research.

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Signed Photograph
John Calvin 1872-1933 Coolidge
Manufacturer: Harris & Ewing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unbound
ASIN: B000I7498E

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The Life Of John W. Weeks
Charles G. Washburn
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing, LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1432627546

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Check Signed
John Calvin 1872-1933 Coolidge
Manufacturer: First National Bank
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unbound
ASIN: B000I72HE2

"A great American": Address of President Coolidge at the unveiling of the John Ericsson Memorial in Washington, May 29, 1926

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"A great American": Address of President Coolidge at the unveiling of the John Ericsson Memorial in Washington, May 29, 1926
Calvin Coolidge
Manufacturer: American-Scandinavian Foundation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0008ATY04

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"You takes your choice",
Clinton W Gilbert
Manufacturer: G.P. Putnam's Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Canceled check signed in full by the 30th President of the United Stat

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Canceled check signed in full by the 30th President of the United Stat
John) Calvin COOLIDGE
Manufacturer: see notes for publisher info
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000PFW7W4

Vermont explained by a typical Vermont village: Which is to say Plymouth

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Vermont explained by a typical Vermont village: Which is to say Plymouth
John Cotton Dana
Manufacturer: Elm tree Press
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Binding: Unknown Binding

Country life in America as lived by ten presidents of the United States: John Adams, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, ... Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge

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Country life in America as lived by ten presidents of the United States: John Adams, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, ... Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge
Edward Townsend Booth
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

United States Presidents:

United States Presidents

United States Presidents