TIEZZI'S BOARD

In this novel, a skilled woodcarver bites off more than he can chew with a piece of valuable hardwood.

Joe Carroll is a woodcarver. For him, it’s an art, but most of the jobs he takes are mundane kitchen renovations and the like. Even in these, he finds satisfaction, such as carving 15 kitchen cupboard doors with delicately painted herbs for a difficult customer. Life isn’t so bad. Joe and his wife, Maggie, own a small place on a beautiful stretch of the Connecticut River, where they are raising their son, Will. Joe’s wood supplier has been telling him for over a year about a big mahogany board he knows of—“1¼ x 6 feet x 14 feet”—for sale by two older brothers a couple of towns over. When Joe finally drives over to look at it, it’s a thing of beauty: “He guessed that it may have been months or years since a shaft of light had illumined it through the crooked doorway. ‘Will, look at this thing.’ Joe couldn’t pretend that it was not amazing….What was this monster piece of wood doing out in this shed?” The board has a history stretching back to the 1940s—a story tied to one brother’s deep regret—and Joe decides to buy it. He wants to make a table and even sells the piece preemptively to his wife’s wealthy boss. It may prove to be Joe’s masterpiece—that is, if he doesn’t screw the whole thing up. Martin’s prose is sunny and engaging even when he gets into the nitty-gritty of carpentry jargon: “He was just getting it down to round, down to where the four flat sides of the lumber all disappeared at about the same time. Joe feared that he’d gone a little too deep in one spot. He threw the on/off switch that years ago he had rigged to the lathe’s old washing machine motor.” It’s not at all a high-stakes read in the traditional sense: The book is really just about a man trying to make a wooden table. It’s the cozy, pleasant sort of novel readers might pick up if they don’t want something too strenuous but don’t mind a story that takes its time to unfold.

An enjoyable rumination on the line between artistry and occupation.