Careless

Wealth can make one careless. Too much pushes other priorities aside and weakens those who eventually must encounter life’s realities. And by comparison, too little might heighten feelings including empathy and caution. Insecurity abounds in either camp. 

Johnny Careless by Kevin Wade is the story of two friends on who met as teens on an elite-league lacrosse team based on the North Shore of Long Island. One comes from old wealth and the other is solidly middle-class. In the background are two fathers, a New York City police officer, who worked the remains of the twin towers post-9/11, generous with advice and love for his only son until early death, and the other controlling and persistently disappointed.  

Johnny Chambliss and Jeep Mullane fix situations for each other, with little imbalance in that regard though Johnny tends to act before asking: Jeep claims to be a driver when Johnny crashes a new Porsche, and Johnny blows off a playoff match for a family ski trip but points out that his absence will help Jeep gain notice from college recruiters attending the games.

Johnny leaves it to Jeep to inform the coach who then confides that staff had long nicknamed his friend Johnny Careless – “He could care less, the wake he leaves just walking around.”  Jeep, also annoyed by his friend, too, is troubled: “it seemed wrong to me for the adults to brand you for how you were when you were seven or eight.” 

Jeep does win a college scholarship and follows in his father’s footsteps by joining the NYPD, hard-working, thoughtful and considerate with perps and victims alike. Involvement with a victim of domestic assault and a subsequent attack prompt him to quit the NYPD and become chief of police for the small North Shore community where he grew up, regularly reminded of words of wisdom from his father about smart policing, including always thinking twice and being generous with favors. Candid with judgment and opinions, Jeep regularly gives breaks to perps as well as annoying citizens and officers. He sees irony in Long Islanders suffering from the lifestyle choices they embrace, traps they may well be.  

The town is not sleepy for long with a South American gang targeting luxury cars and Johnny’s battered body washing up on shore. Nassau County police take the lead on such cases but Jeep knows Johnny, his parents and ex-wife, as well as his darkest secrets which he can help hide or expose to show the true character of his best friend. 

Being careless extends to both sides of the wealth divide, and Jeep observes that “Being careless wasn’t a crime around here, just a tribal custom.”

Stories

Ordinary, everyday relationships offer more intrigue than a murder case in Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout. In small Crosby, Maine, a curmudgeonly 90-year-old woman, Olive, forms a companionship with Lucy, a writer, and they exchange stories. Both agree that all people, even the most ordinary, have stories to live and learn from. The stories may draw curiosity, intrigue, hope and other reactions, patterns others can observe and learn from even if the person living the tale does not. 

Olive observes a budding relationship between Lucy and Bob, a lawyer in town who is not so happily married, and during the course of their exchanges, Olive relays stories about love, including unrequited love and the damage accompanying destroyed marriages. At one point, Olive tells Lucy a story about people who live with ghosts in marriage. Couples who don’t communicate, who don’t really care about the other and constantly pine for someone they cannot have. A person simply may not be available at that moment in time. Those who once enjoyed close relationships might remind others to appreciate the bird in hand.   

The meetings between Bob and Lucy and happy and innocent, including regular walks along the river with deep, uplifting conversations.  Each believes the other is truly listening and listens in turn. Their respective partners do not object and even support the deep friendship. Bob is conflicted as his wife calls Lucy childlike and Lucy raises no quick objections when Bob recalls how his wife was once labeled a narcissist. Trust is on the line.

Any number of factors blunt the potential love affair. A bad haircut results in Bob going into a period of hiding. Bob abruptly cancels a NYC trip with Lucy in the airport after a potential suspect passes by and he takes off to follow. Lucy is rude to a woman in the grocery store, not realizing Bob is observing. Irritation at an immature comment and cutting retort. A naïve client idly mentioning how much he admires and appreciates Bob’s wife. Perhaps all combine into the inescapable knowledge that such a relationship is wrong because it hurts others.

Toward the novel's end, Lucy and Olive talk about people who are their partner’s linchpin, and how they fail to thrive without that partner. Lucy finds herself wondering, “How many people out there are able to be strong – or strong enough – because of the person they’re married to.” 

Some people have reserves of strength on their own and others do not. Lucy may often seem shallow and immature, almost selfish in her quest for details, but still can prompt others toward self-reflection.

By the end, Lucy and Bob separately decide that they cannot be together and each take steps to recalibrate, easing the relationship’s intensity. “We like to think that our lives are within our control, but they may not be completely so. We are necessarily influenced by  those who have come before us.” 

Influenced yes, but we can and should shape the plots we live. 

Love comes in many forms, and love can be shared, but taking what belongs to another will trouble more than satisfy. All have stories to live and learn from. The smallest of stories, the unrecorded ones, often matter the most deeply.