Haiku Guy, by David G. Lanoue
Red Moon Press, P.O. Box 2461, Winchester, Va. 22604
$14.95.

 
This is a very clever novel about a guy who is writing a novel about Japanese haiku poets. The novel darts back and forth between present day and centuries ago, in a mystical, funny, stand-up comic Flaubert way. The main character, Buck-Teeth, is a not so bright character who is learning how to write haiku from a master, Cup-Of-Tea. So far, Cup-Of-Tea's greatest haiku is the famous "Little snail/inch by inch/climb Mt. Fuji!" Buck-Teeth writes okay haikus but Cup-Of-Tea never comments on them, he just looks disdainfully at Buck-Teeth. One of Buck-Teeth's less innocuous haiku is "In the dead cat's eyes/harvest/moons". A Lord Kaga enters the picture and also wants to learn how to write haiku and is smitten with a woman. In the throws of love he writes 99 love haikus, all of which Cup-Of-Tea declines comment on. Finally, tired, Lord Kaga musters up "The old fart/stacks the winter/kindling" to which Cup-Of-Tea smiles and approves of! The humour here is witty and welcome.
     The novel is told in a colorfully descriptive way and is a real page-turner. The author's friends in his writing group visit the ancient time of the Japanese poets to enjoy a festival and then come back in time to write the three versions of the last chapter. It all works to clever comic effect. Along the way we learn lessons in how to write and edit haiku, and some Zen proverbs and life lessons. The author visits modern day Japan to try to find where Cup-Of-Tea, Lord Kaga and Buck-Teeth used to live, to no avail. I found myself transfixed by the tale the author spun, how he wove together different time-frames.
     This book works on many levels, first as a comic novel, second as a haiku primer, and third as a historical piece.The author breaks down the fourth wall in an amusing way and tells us halfway through the novel how his dad read the first chapter of this work in progress and says, "Why don't you write about Richard Nixon? We can never have too many books about Nixon!" The author seems to be familiar with many Japanese customs. Cup-Of-Tea, Buck-Teeth, and three other students have a Forgetting-The-Year party on December 31st: "Buck-Teeth tried to follow Mido's advice, but did not go out of his "right mind" the night of the Forgetting-the-Year Party. After three cups of warm sake, irresistible waves of sleepiness overcame him. By the time Mido leaned over the writing table to refill the young poet's cup, Buck-Teeth was slumped forward head cradled in his arms, deep in a delicious slumber. After so many nights tossing and turning to the tiny comings and goings of the mice, Buck-Teeth finally slept; would sleep all that night and much of the next day.He would wake up late on New Year's afternoon and rise a new man." Then a funny scene occurs when Cup-Of-Tea and his other three students write a haiku in the snow with their pee, and only one of them can complete the haiku because they run out of fuel! I really dug Haiku Guy by David G. Lanoue and will revisit it often.

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