Review
Tinkers is a small book, flush with long sentences; a novel of spare
plot, but grand and intricate ideas. It deserved my full reading
attention, and as a result it served as a kind of antidote to the fast-paced
skimming sort of reading that I perform each day via the computer screen.
On the surface
Tinkers,
Paul Harding's first book, is the tale of
an average man's final days. George Crosby, surrounded by loving family in the
home that he built, is experiencing the last hours of life and memory as his
body methodically fails him. The ministrations of George's relatives and wife
fade from his consciousness as the hours pass and he is transported to places
from his past as he re-lives vital pieces of his life, most often meditating on
his stark and anxious childhood in West Cove, Maine. These childhood scenes
focus sharply on...
Beyond the Book
Horology
Protagonist George Crosby's love for repairing clocks is a prominent theme in
Tinkers, which includes references to a fictional 1783 book called
The
Reasonable Horologist.
Horology encompasses both the science of measuring time and the art of
making time pieces. Thus, horologists include watchmakers, clockmakers,
scholars, scientists and hobbyists. Humans have long been concerned with
recording the passage of time - from Stonehenge
to
calendar stones to sundials and atomic clocks*, civilizations have sought
the most precise way to record time. Today, we can pull up the
official United States time
with just a few keystrokes!
There are numerous museums and libraries around the world devoted to...
