Deceit takes its toll on two generations in “So Long at the Fair.” Christina Schwarz explores the impacts of marital secrets — some of which go back years and others that play out over the course of one day.
Jon has known his wife, Ginny, since they were in high school 20 years ago. They grew up in a small town about 30 miles outside of Madison, Wis. The two have rarely strayed far from Madison; they are now settled in what looks like a stable life. Jon works for an ad agency, and Ginny is a landscape architect.
Ginny doesn’t realize that Jon is several months into an affair with a co- worker, Freddi. She ascribes his distance of late to her problems getting pregnant. The idea of infidelity just doesn’t lie in her realm of possibility: “That was one thing she didn’t have to worry about. Integrity was everything to Jon. He might leave her and then take up with someone else; that was conceivable. But cheat? Never. His mother’s infidelity had seen to that.”
Their summer Saturday doesn’t start well. Jon thought they had plans to attend Summerfest; Ginny has completely forgotten their date. She is working in their yard when Jon reminds her that they are spending the day together. And she tells him she can’t possibly break the appointments with her clients that day. Couldn’t they go on Sunday?
One of the appointments is with a man Jon would certainly object to, if he knew. Walter Fleischer owns land that had been a country club with a nine- hole golf course in the town where Jon and Ginny grew up. Fleischer grew up rich and entitled, and seemingly had an affair with Jon’s mother, the wife of one of his closest friends. The indiscretion destroyed Jon’s family.
The country club has fallen into disuse, the golf course overgrown. Fleischer wants Ginny to plan the landscaping for a high-end redevelopment project. Once she catches sight of his vision, she cannot resist; it is a dream project. It’s a good thing, she thinks, that Jon has been too distracted of late to ask about her clients.
Ginny and Jon argue over plans for the day; Jon leaves the house, angry. He thinks, “It was a relief to feel angry with her, not guilty, not anxious, not sad, just angry.” He calls Freddi, and they decide to spend the day together, including a risky visit to Summerfest.
Schwarz propels the narrative forward with an intricate mix of story and back story. There is the story of Jon and Ginny, which starts with Jon’s infatuation with a young woman who seems, by high-school social standards, impossibly out of reach. There is an accident, his fault, which also becomes the opportunity to cement their relationship.
There is another back story, more distant in time, having to do with Jon’s mother, Hattie, and Walter Fleischer. Hattie is a formidable woman, though she seems wrongheaded in her strength, a woman described as having a beauty that “comes from the certainty with which she presents herself.” Unfortunately, self-confidence doesn’t equal infallible judgment.
“So Long at the Fair” is a mixed bag of a book. It’s an interesting look at marital secrets, the primary one being infidelity, and the questions it raises cause the reader to wonder how he or she might act or react in a similar situation. The characters, however, are drawn unevenly — Ginny seems fully fleshed but Jon is harder to understand. It’s not clear what drove him to stray. There are some interesting twists in terms of Hattie’s contribution to the story, but overall, it’s hard to really care.
All the elements, including a second subplot about a young lawyer obsessed with Freddi, come together with some surprises. Schwarz throws out some bones for book groups to gnaw. The twists that come at the end of the novel are delightful, and they nicely bring together much of what has arisen earlier.
Robin Vidimos is a freelance writer who reviews books for The Denver Post and Buzz in the ‘Burbs.
