Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon remains relevant

 Sometimes, books have completely different meanings depending on where you are when you read them. (Every time I read Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, I swear it’s a completely different book. Which is why I try to read it every few years) Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon was published in 1977, I first read it in the late 80s and when I reread it last month, it felt like a new book.

Okay, that’s a bit strong. But I took different things away from it.

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Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon by Spider Robinson is the first book in a series that is currently nine books over twenty-five years. It’s about a bar (honestly, a series of bars) where fantasy and science fiction things happen.

It’s more than that but that’s enough to give you the gist. I’d describe Robinson as a post New Wave author, with a strong focus on human nature but a profound sense of optimism that I sometimes feel New Wave authors weren’t allowed to have. I don’t agree with all his conclusions but I am willing to listen to his arguments.

(I learned while research this blog entry that he has effectively retired due to having a lot of personal tragedy. Which feels particularly tragic for a someone who championed optimism in the face of adversity)

The first Callahan book is a fascinating uneven read to me now. The Centipede’s Dilemma and Just Deserts are weak fluff. Unnatural Causes, which as about (I kid you not) how Adolph Hitler was a space alien whose race had been cultivating the human race for meat for two thousand years isn’t a bad story but doesn’t fit with the Callahan feel. In fact, later stories seem to effectively contradict it or at least ignore it.

Other stories are quite strong. The Guy With the Eyes and A Voice is Heard in Raman… in particular hold up. And The Time Traveler is Spider Robinson’s strongest and most important early work. The story of Reverend Tom Hauptmann who traveled from 1963 to 1973 the hard way. One day at a time in an isolated third world prison cell. He emerges to a world he doesn’t recognize and struggles to understand.

It was a powerful work at the time. And maybe it would be a powerful work at any given time. Any block of ten years has some weight. But I think the last ten years have been an impressively wild ride and a modern day Tom Hauptmann would have a lot to say.

Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon is very much a product of its time, warts and all. But at its best, it is timeless.