Passing Again by Tom LeClair (review)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:

• Passing Again by Tom LeClair
• Neil D. Isaacs (bio)

passing again Tom LeClair
I-Beam Books
https://shop.spybeambooks.com/product/passing-again
258 pages; Print, $49.00

About halfway through this self-designated novel, during a conversation between Tom and Michael, two of the three major characters (the third being the photographer K), Tom says, "Readers should know writing is inherently fictional, an arbitrary code and fabricated mechanism." This seems to be an equally good description of this book, once described to me as being "about rejuvenation near the end—of a life, of a series, of fiction itself." Put these statements together and a reader gets a partial accounting for what might be called a brilliant account of Passing Again—a challenging book on its own account and a summary (or conclusion) of a quintet of novels.

As briefly as possible within my limitations of space and understanding, a review of the preceding four books is called for. The earliest, Passing Off (1996), is passed off as a basketball book. Its first-person narrator tours Greece while playing as a point guard, referencing the game's history, and professing his command of ecology, history, language, literature, and revolution. He has changed his last name from McKeever to Kyvernos (informally, Keever) to satisfy the Greek requirement for some aspect of "Grecian" for any pro player beyond a single American all-star.

Keever has brought his wife of many years, Ann (and their five-year-old daughter, Sara), for broadening. But when he begins to tour the region with his team, he is accompanied by an alluring woman called Eleni. More than a sex object, she persuades Michael to join her underground group, which is [End Page 83] planning to destroy the Parthenon as a call for changing the old-time beliefs and behaviors of modern Greece. When Keever signs a document to endorse their beliefs, he agrees to engage in the international money trade and then to deliver a powerful plastic for the explosion. Using his basketball skills of speed, deception, and accuracy, he manages to recover the package and escape from Athens.

Several years pass before the second novel, Passing On (2004). Keever has worked among European hoopsters for two years after Greece, in Italy and Spain, although missing his beloved Greece. The persistent first-person narrator, Michael Keever, soon reveals that the earlier novel was actually written by Ann, because she thought she'd be protecting the monetary value she (and Sara) need. Working part-time as a referee, he has a severe accident that sends him to the hospital for a hip replacement, ending his basketball career (though hoops references enrich the text throughout).

Keever then works for an insurance company, spying on patients who are cheating for medical treatments they do not need. He then focuses on a new project called "Terminal Tours." Patients who believe they have short times to live hire Keever to accompany them, one at a time, to places they want to see. He is like a travel agent, guide, friend, concierge, and historian, playing these multiple roles at luxury rates of travel and residence. With them, he enjoys visits to the childhood and youthful sites these eager people cherish, and especially the famous places they'd always wanted to see, for example, Marathon, Agra, the pyramids in Egypt, Westminster, and Graceland.

A few mis-steps take Tom (formerly Keever) off the tours. In one case a customer takes him to Lourdes, reversing roles as Mr. Rorque lectures Tom on the sacred blessing of St. Mary's visitations to Bernadette, then dies alone in the deepest cavern of the caves. Keever is left with the chore of arranging for the body's shipment home, where Rorque's son will surely sue Tom on many counts. Then comes the suicide of a terminally crippled teenager who shares Keever's fascination with basketball and is the dearest friend of Sara, now fifteen, who has been helping on the tours and now blames her father's teaching for her friend's suicide. Ann refuses to let Tom off the hook, but she will take over the tours—for the income.

Finally, Tom...