John Adney offers us a wonderful and gentle book. No pretending that every trial in life is grand theater. No search for deep psychological disturbances. No pretense that the mortar that holds our souls together consists of violent images, coarse language, degradation, or depravity.
No lawyers, doctors, engineers, or computer scientists populate this novel. No overeducated, self-centered, tortured souls, appear to work through the angst of prosperous modern life,
Adney’s four principals are plumbers—craft practitioners, undeniably necessary to us all, but highly skilled laborers and small business folks. These three men and one woman “of the pipe” begin with a simple irritation. Their customers are rude, dismissive, and occasionally hostile.
They also share a common knowledge of a community problem that is centered, appropriately, on shoddy plumbing. While the poor work seems deliberate, no disaster looms, and none of the characters turn into Rocky or Wonder Woman. A hearing before a local utilities regulator in a small mid-Atlantic town provides the peak of suspense.
Among books of revelation, The Plumber’s Retreat plays small-ball.
Precisely for that reason, however, Adney’s book speaks more directly to its readers.
It reminds us that we should not obsess on our own reactions when others treat us with less kindness than we deserve. We should focus on how we treat them, and the anxieties that they endure and that fuels their actions towards us.
It tells us that the courage to choose the correct fork at intersections in our moral road derives from a combination of inner conviction and the help of supportive friends.
It counsels that peace, enjoyment, and purpose lie in surprisingly prosaic ideas.
It shows that you can actually write a bit of romance into a manuscript without characters tearing each other’s clothes off, falling off the furniture, and emitting muffled cries of ecstasy.
And, with a twist towards the end, The Plumber’s Retreat confirms that we often find our true guideposts in half-remembered conversations and blurred events that acquire meaning through our efforts to recall them in sharpened detail.