Book Review: “Potter Springs”

In the interest of full disclosure, let me state upfront that my copy of Potter Springs was provided free of charge by the publisher, who apparently contacted a number of bloggers (primarily in Texas) and made the same offer. There was no accompanying request for a review; no strings attached. The publisher is obviously hoping for a positive blog buzz over the book and is willing to take a few risks with this experiment.

There’s nothing in the jacket description for Potter Springs that would normally tempt me to read it:

A poignantly rendered debut novel follows the Texas-sized loves and losses of star-crossed newlyweds who, forced by the consequences of their passion, leave upscale Houston for a small town in the Panhandle…

“Poignantly rendered” is code for chick lit, especially when combined with the adjective “star-crossed.” It shouldn’t surprise you to know that I’d never before read a romance novel, nor have I acquired a taste for the genre after reading this one. But, you might be surprised to learn that I had a hard time putting this book down, and in fact started and finished it over the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

I agreed to read the book primarily because of its Texas setting, but that ended up having little to do with the appeal of the story. The author, Britta Coleman, is a Texan currently living in Fort Worth, and so she pretty much nails the contrast between Houston and the fictional Panhandle town of Potter Springs, but, really, the story could have been set in any location without losing its impact.

This is a story about the consequences of married couples who can’t — or won’t — talk to each other about the “elephant in the room.” In this case, it’s the loss of a baby through miscarriage…but in real life, the syndrome plays out around any number of subjects, large and small: money, sex, household chores, problems with kids or parents — you name it. Why we find it so difficult to talk to our spouses about such things is a mystery, but it’s not an exaggeration.

Potter Springs is Coleman’s first novel and it seems to struggle at times to figure out what it wants to be. On one level, it’s a farce (in the literary sense, of course) wherein miscommunication, misinterpretation and improbable situations create tension between the main characters. On another level, it’s one of those romance novels I mentioned above, where you know everything is going to be fine in the end, but only after the “star-crossed lovers” have to drag themselves through the muck of life to realize what they’re missing.

This book also has clear Christian undertones. Part of that is because one of the main characters is a Baptist minister, but I suspect it’s also an intentional decision based on the author’s values. That’s not to say that anything is sugarcoated, and it’s definitely not “preachy.” In fact, this may be one of the more realistic depictions of how life is for most Christians: messy, stressful, complicated, prone to foul-ups, most of which are due to our own stupidity and pride. In short, just like life for everyone else, with the significant exception that there’s always Someone there to pick us up and pick up after us.

The book provides an unflinching look at the additional complications that come with being a pastor (and a pastor’s wife). The stress of unrealistic expectations can be crushing.

I have a few nits to pick with the book. As a guy, I have a tendency to overanalyze, and when I read a plotline that has a character driving eleven hours from the Panhandle to Houston (which is about right), but later includes a reference to being “over 300 miles away,” well, that inconsistency bugs me. (I’ll give the author the benefit of the doubt and suggest that perhaps an editor in New York changed the mileage, because no one would believe that Texas is that big.) I also thought the characters sometimes were caricatures, painted with too much black or white. And, in the end, every last one of them was redeemed, his or her character flaws either explained or flipped or fixed.

But, the book had the important effect of making me think beyond the characters or even the plot. Some authors are artists who paint with words; their work is enjoyable primarily for the aesthetics of how they string those words together. Tom Wolfe comes to mind. Others are workmen for whom the plot is everything; they’ll use the bare minimum of words to get that plot fixed. That’s how I view Stephen King. Then there are those who don’t fit neatly into either category; they have an idea that needs to get out, off the page and into the reader’s brain, and the words and the plot exist to serve that idea. That’s how I see Britta Coleman’s rendering of Potter Springs. And that’s a good thing.

I’ll be interested in reading the thoughts of other bloggers who accepted the publisher’s offer of a review copy of this book.

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