Historical December 1985 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
I Been There Before by David Carkeet, Harper, 1985.
David Carkeet steeped himself in Mark Twain in order to write this novel which brings the great American humorist back to earth on Halley’s Comet. (Twain was born in November 1835 when the comet made an appearance near the earth and died in April 1910 when the next comet left the area.) Of course, the book ends with Twain’s departure, on the comet once more, next April. Loops in time and space become the basic structure of the book.
The Preface and the Introduction are set at the Mark Twain Papers in Berkeley and are followed by the first part of Twain’s “new manuscript,” then informative footnotes compiled by the staff at Berkeley and a chapter of chase narrated by the General Editor of the Twain Papers who sent a staff member to discover if Twain is an imposter.
This three-part pattern is repeated twice more.
The Editor has the first two parts of Twain’s manuscript but not the third at the outset.
As amazing as it may sound, the book does build suspense which is resolved in unexpected ways. Twain’s manuscript is very much in his style with tall tales, surprising punch lines, and a destruction of conventional ways of seeing with just enough autobiographical detail to discomfort a reader about the nature of reality.
There are also poignant letters, written to his wife, revealing Twain’s darker side, his sense of guilt, and a witty sketch between Twain and St. Peter.
The footnotes invite readers to know Twain and his work better and provide an air of truth about the basic tall tale which makes up the book.
The better one knows Twain, the more fun the book is because of the frequency of echoes from his work and life.
During this centennial year of The Adventures of Huck Finn, it is only natural that that book should play a significant part in this work since the title comes from it: the staff at Mark Twain Papers are led on their pursuit of truth by a notebook which insists that Twain’s worthless brother actually wrote most of Huck Finn. Also Twain, in his second life, is the age he was when he wrote Huck.
This fact helps the knowledgeable reader appreciate the preposterous tale. Carkeet avoids the obvious in that Twain rarely comments on changes in the world during his seventy-five year absence.
He believeably “earns” money to support his travels from Nevada, to the Midwest and the East Coast, visiting places important to his earlier life, but not in ways one would expect. Typical Twain characters abound, the most memorable being the imposter who exhibits the evil side of human nature. Twain would find this book to be a most splendid contribution to the celebration of his 150th birthday.
Original photograph caption
Author David Carkeet with Barbara Schmidt. Photo by King Schoenfeld. The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, December 1985, page 4.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, December 1985.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1985_12.pdf, printed page(s) 4; PDF page(s) 4.
