THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019 // 19
BOOKMONGER
Hummasti’s posthumous novel a love song to humanity
‘Forty Ways to
Square a Circle’ a
mighty fi ne read
Every once in a while
a novelist captures a place
with such immediacy and
creates a predicament with
such immersive power,
that the reader — when
the phone rings in her own
home, or the cat bumps
against her leg wanting sup-
per — will look up and won-
der, “Where am I?”
Such is the case with
“Forty Ways to Square a Cir-
cle,” a semi-autobiograph-
ical novel about Casey
Merriman, a high school lan-
guage arts teacher who, over
the course of spring semes-
ter in 1996, watches as his
school’s administration dis-
mantles the humanities cur-
riculum for a new emphasis
on computer literacy.
As if that weren’t dis-
heartening enough, Mer-
riman goes home every
night to tend to his elderly
aunt, whose grip on real-
ity is crumbling away due to
dementia.
You might extrapolate
some parallels there. Keep
THIS WEEK’S
BOOK
“Forty Ways to Square
a Circle”
By Neil Hummasti
Svensen Pioneer Press
224 pp
$18.95
reading, and you’ll fi nd
more to chew on.
This novel has been pub-
lished posthumously. Author
Neil Hummasti was an Asto-
ria resident who died of can-
cer in 2011. He had a long
career as a high school
English teacher and coach.
On the side, he wrote prodi-
giously: essays, tracts, short
stories and novels.
Upon Hummasti’s death,
his brother discovered this
writing cache, along with
dozens of complimentary
rejection slips from top New
York publishing houses.
Deciding it was high time
that these works reached the
reading public, Arnie Hum-
masti formed Svensen Pio-
neer Press and has begun
publishing these works to
honor and share his broth-
er’s legacy.
“Forty Ways to Square a
Circle” is set in the fi ctional
town of Coboway (named
after a real-life Clatsop chief
who befriended Lewis &
Clark), on the Oregon side
of the Lower Columbia
River. Just as those explor-
ers from two centuries ear-
lier had bemoaned the
rain, Hummasti also takes
repeated note of the consis-
tently dank weather of the
place.
It tends to reinforce the
protagonist’s gloomy out-
look on his situation in
life. Merriman is increas-
ingly thwarted by the ding-
bat principal who runs his
school, and by his once
vivacious aunt’s downward
spiral.
Oh, sure, there are bright
spots in his days. Among
his colleagues, he counts
spirited language arts
teacher Doria Herrera and
long-in-the-tooth science
teacher Kit Early as friends.
Merriman draws strength
from his students, too, and
they in turn are engaged
in the work he sets before
them.
His own dreams and
potential, however, have
been smothered by disap-
pointments and obligations,
and midlife torpor has set
in.
But then a school shoot-
ing shakes things up, and
an improbable love triangle
manifests, and a drowning
occurs, and a life-threaten-
ing diagnosis is revealed.
Merriman is nudged out
of his rut and prompted to
take a rash action that will
force him to see things
anew.
“Forty Ways to Square
a Circle” is an erudite
story, layered with obser-
vations on the human con-
dition that extend from the
ancient Greeks to pop cul-
ture of the late 20th century.
It’s a forceful argument for
teaching the humanities,
and a poignant love song to
humanity — and other liv-
ing things.
Best of all, it’s a mighty
fi ne read.
The cover
art of Neil
Hummasti’s
‘Forty Ways
to Square a
Circle,’ drawn
by Dave
McMacken.
Svensen
Pioneer Press
The Bookmonger is Bar-
bara Lloyd McMichael,
who writes this weekly col-
umn focusing on the books,
authors and publishers of
the Pacifi c Northwest. Con-
tact her at bkmonger@
nwlink.com.
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