A Man of Marbles

There has been many an attempt to portray the simple person in the arts, be that The Idiot by Dostoevsky, The Fool on The Hill by The Beatles and even Banksy with his I am an Imbecile balloon.

Not that I particularly wish to compare A Man of Marbles by an obscure Australian journalist, novelist and poet to such an illustrious group as those mentioned above, but this just might be the closest thing that I have read in Australian literature that relates to the idiot who is a fool and an imbecile but then is not. The cover of my copy is the brilliant Moses Leading the People by Arthur Boyd and has me wondering what it was that author Rod Usher was trying to tell us in this rather clever tale of the man with an innate and simple goodness of heart and head trying to deal with circumstantial adversity thrust upon him.

“No one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand.” observes Bertolt Brecht.
“'I've hundreds of things to say, but my tongue just cannot manage them. So I'll dance then for you! Here goes'” Zorba the Greek pronounces.
“There is always the possibility that certain relatively clear pointers towards various events and actions will be misinterpreted or lost as mere hints.” Heinrich Boll tells us.
“......today you have flung away with your own hand all the advantages which an interrogation invariably confers on an innocent man.” says Kafka.
“Fame, after all, is only the quintessence of all the misunderstandings that collect around a new name” Rilke wisely states.
“'Weight up the pros and cons, Yannakos; this might get you into trouble' ‘I've weighed them again and again, Konstandis, the weights are just right for me” remarks Kazantzakis shrewdly remarks.

Usher quotes from many sources as he gives us Stavro ‘Stan' Kristopolis, a tender-hearted young man who lives with his very Greek/Australian parents as a green grocer in that very Greek and at the same time cosmopolitan city that is Melbourne. To tell Stan's story of simple goodness and joy that each day brings him with such trivial delights as his pet rabbit would be to give the plot away. The plot is a simple one really, but it is with those more famous literary quotes that bring each chapter together in a wise and very witty telling of innocence never really lost or gained. The plot challenges us to look into our hearts and heads and face the fact that the majority of all humankind sees simple pleasure as not that intelligent, sees uncomplicated goodness as witless.
It also asks who have lost their marbles; you, me, or that oddity dancing in the street?

Recommended to the non-conformist or those that who seek the Promised Land.