Western Courier

Issue date: 3/31/06 Section: News

Media Credit: Art Self III Knox College in Galesburg professor and novelist Robert Hellenga was at Tri-States Public Radio Station last night for a book reading.

Novelist Robert Hellenga was present last night to read from his latest novel, answer questions and sign copies in the Tri States Radio Studio. Hellenga, professor at Knox College in Galesburg, is the author of four novels: "The Sixteen Pleasures," "Blues Lessons," "The Fall of a Sparrow" and his latest, "Philosophy Made Simple."

The audience was made up primarily of First Year Experience students there for class and members of the community were there to hear Hellenga read from his book.

"Philosophy Made Simple:" begins with three chapters taken from an earlier book, "The Sixteen Pleasures," which, Hellenga said slowed the book down.

"They are told from the father's perspective. He's in Chicago while the heroine is in Italy. But I don't like to waste anything, so I published them individually as short stories and then while I was stuck, I went back to them and started this off with them," Hellenga said.

"The Sixteen Pleasures" centers around the activities of Rudy Harrington, an avocado wholesaler who decides after his wife's death to sell his home in Chicago and move to Texas to have an avocado grove. His three daughters are living their own lives in the far corners of the world and the middle one, Molly, is engaged to be married to an Indian scientist. The neighborhood he moves to in Texas is a colorful one, Hellenga said, and his neighbors include an old Russian who keeps his former circus elephant who paints, Norma Jean, in a barn.

Rudy and the Russian, who as far as Hellenga said does not have a name, develop a friendship and the Russian begins to teach Rudy the commands he uses to train Norma Jean. On top of all this, Rudy is planning his daughter's wedding. He rediscovers an interest in philosophy and ponders the true meaning of Immanuel Khant's Dingon Zishe. He also encounters a Pandit, a Hindu priest who tells him after he has sent the wedding invitations out the date chosen for the wedding is inauspicious and should be changed.

Hellenga said he got the idea for a painting elephant after he had heard an item on NPR about it.

"Then I started to do a little research and it turns out there are people in Texas who have elephants. Often they don't have great lives," Hellenga said.

Continued...

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