Rich Flanders is not a famous singer, although he’s won awards; he’s not a motivational speaker, although he was a very successful salesman; and he’s not a spiritual guru, although he probably could gather his own band of disciples by sheer force of personality. So who is Rich Flanders and why should we read his memoir, UNDER THE GREAT ELM? It’s a legitimate question, particularly when his story twists and turns and detours here and there and doesn’t seem to be heading towards any discernible climax– but remarkably, that’s the point. And the charm.
Although at times Flanders does come off like one’s daffy uncle spinning yarns for a family trapped at the dinner table, there is enough that’s enchanting about his journey to keep reader’s sitting there to ‘listen’. We have a fascination for people who live life on their own terms and Flanders definitely fits that bill; hitchhiking all over America doing odd jobs to survive, wandering through Paris on an LSD trip, and selling blood to finance trips through Greece, Turkey, and Israel are just a few of his exploits. He’s such an adventurous oddball that it’s almost a letdown when he does mundane things like attend acting school and become a Shaklee salesman.
As with any memoir, there are moments when the author reveals more than he himself realizes, and the short shrift given to topics like Flanders’ wife’s depression over not being able to have children is an uncomfortable example; Flanders quips that the “care and feeding of Richard” was more than enough responsibility for Amy and it smacks of a self-absorption that takes some effort for the reader to shake off. Similarly, the chapter about his weeklong “Ambassadors to the Universe” training to establish extraterrestrial contact, while certainly entertaining, starts off rather sourly with Flanders promising his wife that he wouldn’t shirk his responsibilities and admitting that he never told her about signing a form that released the company of liability in case he was abducted by aliens. These small revelations give the reader a feeling that being in a relationship with Rich Flanders was not quite as much fun as hearing his stories.
Ultimately, however, Flanders’ curiosity, wonder, and joy shine through the narrative and when his life takes a truly unexpected turn near the end of the book, the reader is more than ready to go along on the ride. UNDER THE GREAT ELM is not a long story– only 204 pages–and worthy of a few hours of one’s time, if for nothing else than to accompany Flanders on a lifelong session of “Mystery School”.
Appropriately subtitled “A Life of Luck and Wonder”, Rich Flanders’ memoir, UNDER THE GREAT ELM, chronicles his days of world travel, spiritual searching, and romantic serendipity with an infectious sense of amazement and curiosity.
~Shari Simpson for IndieReader