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LAST MINUTE MUSINGS: Love of city resonates in Fabe's ‘Kindred Spirits’
All songs, in my estimation, are love songs.
Sure, they aren’t all filled with romance, but what else is a song but an expression of devotion to something.
As someone who spends an inordinate amount of time thinking about songs, I think I have a thing or two to say on the subject. I have thousands of songs (maybe tens of thousands?) bumping around in my head, for heaven’s sake.
And if you didn’t love something — why would you bother to write a song about it?
I suppose that’s true of all art — painting, poetry, drama, architecture, sculpture, film and fiction, among others.
Last summer, I had the pleasure of writing about one such piece of fiction. “The Write House,” written by Stuart Fabe of Greencastle, is a love song — or perhaps a love letter — about the community he adopted as his home 18 years ago.
In fact, the Cincinnati native partially credits country living for his ability to create since moving to Putnam County with partner and local native Marla Helton, living in a place where he can “be able to let my imagination fly wherever it wants to go.”
Set just after the end of World War I, “The Write House” tells the story of Delano and Caroline Engel, who purchase a home just outside of Greencastle and set about starting a life as a young family and aviation pioneers.
A mystery erupts, though, when the Engels’ young daughter, Aurora, is kidnapped, and only some magical intervention by The Book of Tamberg can get her back safely
Throughout the novella, Fabe interweaves the story of his adopted hometown, its places and the people he’s come to consider friends and loved ones. In fact, the names of the main characters — Delano and Caroline Engel — and the “house” of the title, are based on Fabe’s friends LaWayne and Carol Engelstad and their home west of Greencastle.
Fast forward 25 or so years in the plot and Fabe has recently published his latest offering, “Kindred Spirits,” his ninth novel overall and second in this series.
In the book, we get the story of the all-grown-up Aurora, a recent law school grad who returns home to an offer from her parents to serve as the CEO of the soon-to-be-established Engel Charitable Trust, a $25 million endowment that will help nonprofits continue to make life a better place in Greencastle.
Fabe notes that this was fitting, as he spent a large part of his pre-novelist career in philanthropy.
The only problem is, on the verge of helping all of these organizations, the money disappears, and all signs point to Ben Witt, Aurora’s new husband.
As the pages continue to turn, though, we learn that something more nefarious may be afoot, a plot that could have international repercussions.
Without giving too much of the story away, it’s sufficient to say that Fabe is still enamored with his adopted home. Besides the Engel homestead, Fabe takes us to another real-life local gem, this one tucked away in southern Putnam County.
That would be the Kennedy Bell Farm southeast of Cloverdale. Once a working farm, the property now sits abandoned, but still adorned with bells collected by the Kennedy brothers, a pair of bachelors who farmed the land and collected bells, more than 300 of them before time and thieves took many of them away.
“The bells resonated with me,” Fabe said. They resonated so much that he took friend and retired music professor Eric Edberg to the farm to ask if it was possible for sound waves to communicate with humans.
This question provides the supernatural twist of the latest book. With her husband and the money missing, Caroline finds that the Virtue Bell, an aptly-named wedding gift that originated at a foundry of the same name in Cincinnati, can communicate with her. It’s a secret she shares with her parents. It turns out they can understand after their experience with a sentient book.
Only the Virtue Bell, like The Book of Tamberg before it, can safely return order to the Engels/Witt family.
“The bell provides the guidance to the family to get the money back and restore the family name and to restore the promise of a golden age in Greencastle,” Fabe said.
In the book, the bell is a gift from Max Kindred, who takes his names from the real-life Kennedy family and the late Max Smith, the significant other of Fabe’s friend Anita McEnulty. In fact, the book is dedicated to the Kennedy family and to McEnulty.
Other real (or almost real) locations mentioned in the book include Asbury College (DePauw University), Inspire Gift Shop, Hadley’s Hardware, Putnam County Airport, Wagoner Tree Farm, Putnam County Courthouse, Big Walnut Creek, Detro’s trailer lot, Waterworks Hill, Putnam County Fairgrounds, Almost Heaven Restaurant, Carnegie Library, Putnam County Convention and Visitors Bureau and even The Banner newspaper — but more on that later.
Also like in the previous novel, Fabe has based characters’ names and traits on friends from the area. There are Suzette and Jeb Crosley (Susan and Joe Crosby), Almost Heaven proprietor Gwen (recently-minted Putnam County Citizen of the Year Gail Smith), cellist Enrique Bergman (the aforementioned Edberg), Rev. Langston Bryant (Bryan Langdoc), the Tad Robbins Band (Tad Robinson) and Rick Freedman (Eric Freeman).
And then there’s the local newspaper editor, Red Jergens. That’s right, he’s based on the writer of this column. However, when he’s initially described by Aurora as “an energetic and fair-minded chap,” I worry that my friend Stu may not know me well enough.
If you’ll excuse some momentary self indulgence, I’d only like to say that I’ve always had this weird dream that someday I might be named in the liner notes of an album — remember my music obsession. Then again, as a literature major back in college, I believe getting to be a character in a novel is much more fitting.
And it’s more than a cameo for ol’ Red Jergens. Throughout the mystery that unfolds, Aurora is in frequent contact with Red. Based on those interactions, Stu certainly seems to understand that I’m serious about my job but rarely too busy to crack a joke or two along the way.
I can only say thank you for the immortalization, Stu.
Perhaps, though, it’s all of us who know and love Putnam County who should be thanking Fabe. He has again crafted an engaging narrative about the place we call home, one that is available at local retailers as well as by contacting him directly at stuartfabe@gmail.com.
“One of the things I really wanted to do, because I have a good local following, is to represent our town in a positive way,” Fabe said.
So he has, in yet another love song to his adopted hometown.