A Posturing of Fools.

A Posturing of Fools

Brewster Milton Robertson

River City Publishing

1719 Mulberry Street, Montgomery, AL 36106

ISBN 1579660517 $27.95 463 pages

The promise of a wild ride is implied in the opening stroke of Brewster Milton Robertson's third novel, A Posturing of Fools (River City Press, 2004). From the moment we meet our dubious hero, Logan Baird, being "launched skyward, tumbling ass over HUMVEE," on a "bomb-pitted Bosnian back road," the reader is hooked.

From here we move to Logan leaving his henpecking, harridan of a wife to attend a medical symposium at West Virginia's venerated Greenbrier resort. Robertson sustains his promise as our ride continues on a manicured minefield laced with scruffy CEO's who drive dented cars, and sommeliers who double as successful authors, at a place where most of us would have to spend a fortnight's wages to properly enjoy.

A salesman for a pharmaceutical company, Logan is duly grateful for the opportunity to enjoy the opulence of the Greenbrier in the name of work. Through his unjaded eyes (and Robertson's loving details), the reader is treated to a vicarious visit to paradise. As with any paradise, however, there must be a snake. In this case he makes his appearance in the guise of Rush Donald, Logan's haughty, buffoon of a boss. An excellent foil for the not-so innocent Logan, Rush has a gift for grandiose pronouncements that reminded me a bit of George Bernard Shaw, and had me laughing out loud.

Were it not for Rush's obnoxiousness, we might find ourselves having a hard time liking bad boy Logan Baird. Between his inability to keep his pecker in his pants, and his cavalier reaction to his best friend's death, we're not sure whether we want to sit him down for a lecture or bop him upside the head. Logan's character, as well as the novel, is elevated by the masterful exploration of class and values deftly woven by Robertson.

Logan's all too obvious weaknesses along with his frequent bouts of questioning and self-loathing serve to both humanize him and create likeability. Robertson manages to address pretentiousness along with our dollar driven, label obsessed society without being heavy handed. When Rush whines about not having a fancier golf bag, Logan muses, "Growing up I had learned that charisma transcended the trappings of things like clothes and automobiles." Later Logan wraps up the novel's message, "In the end our personal value systems determine how we feel about ourselves. That's the true essence of class. Self-esteem is the most important thing there is."

By the book's end, Logan isn't much less of a cad than he was at the beginning. But we like him anyway. In the span of four days he has managed to re-examine his life, addressing the questions we are all too often afraid to ask ourselves. Reading A Posturing of Fools is akin to enjoying a grand fairy-tale. The story is fun, the ending happy, the message lingering somewhere in our subconscious.