Every once in a while a film comes along that changes your
perceptions of life. An idea is expressed in a certain way, and the
way you see that idea causes your beliefs about it to flower and it
becomes an organic part of you. Documentary films quite often do
this by presenting simple stories of real people in sometimes
startling and astounding ways.
Every once in a while a film comes along that changes your perceptions of life. An idea is expressed in a certain way, and the way you see that idea causes your beliefs about it to flower and it becomes an organic part of you. Documentary films quite often do this by presenting simple stories of real people in sometimes startling and astounding ways.
“Bowling For Columbine,” Michael Moore’s scathing indictment of the American propensity for violence, was the most important documentary of last year, and it should win the Oscar for best documentary. “Stone Reader,” Mark Moscowitz’s brilliant expose of reading and the great American novel, is a great film along those lines. By asking a single question, Moscowitz goes on a trek trying to answer it. By the film’s end, both he and the moviegoer have been on one of the most spectacular rides, and we are better and more learned because of it.
The film is a documentary road trip to find Dow Mossman, the author of “The Stones of Summer,” which Moscowitz describes as the “lost great American novel.” In 1972, at the age of 18, Mark Moscowitz picked up the New York Times Book Review and read a glowing review of the book, proclaiming it as one of the best first novels ever written. He purchased a copy of the book, but couldn’t get past the first 20 pages or so and put the book away.
Twenty-five years later, Moscowitz picked up the paperback of “The Stones of Summer” again and couldn’t put it down, reading it in a single day. The experience changed his life, and the book, which documents a single boy’s youth and rebellion, is as important as any other book written on the subject.
Mark Moscowitz immediately went to Amazon.com to try and buy up all the books from Dow Mossman, the author of “Stones of Summer.” Surprisingly, he found nothing. How could such a great first novelist just stop writing? He sent the book to friends and asked if they had heard about it, but none had.
It is here that we go on the journey of discovery as we follow Mark and his camera crew around the country, trying to figure out as much as he can about Dow Mossman, hoping to eventually find him and tell him the impact of reading the novel had on him.
Mark’s travels bring him to Robert Gottlieb, the editor of Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22,” universally regarded as one of the best novels ever written.
Gottlieb acknowledges that Heller, like Mossman, was a one-book writer. How could that be, he asks. Gottlieb mentions that publishing houses change and are downsized, allowing some great books to fall through the cracks.
He agrees that “The Stones of Summer” is one of the great American novels ever written but also mentions that it may be very difficult to get the book back into print, which would mean investment and publicity, all of which could go for naught if the book doesn’t catch on.
So, 30 years after its initial publication, “The Stones of Summer” still remains diabolically out-of-print, with no new printing in sight.
The meditations and reflections about books between Moscowitz and his interview subjects, which include literary scholars and the novelist Frank Conroy, are illuminating, giving us insight into why we love books so much and why novels give us stories in a way that can’t be replicated in performance art.
“Stone Reader” is undeniably about the power of literature, and how our favorite books change us as people. The film also tries, with success, to come to some conclusions as to why so many novelists just write one book.
Pressures of publishing, success and money are important variables in the equation. But with the sheer effort it takes to get a novel written, with rewrite after rewrite, it may just be too emotional an experience for writers to shake, especially if the subject matter is a bit autobiographical, which most stories seem to be.
STONE READER. A documentary film written and directed by Mark Moskowitz. Shot on 16mm film. With Mark Moskowitz, Carl Brandt, Frank Conroy, Bruce Dobler, Robert Downs, Robert Ellis, Robert Gottlieb, Dow Mossman and William Cotter Murray. Unrated (Would be PG-13 for language), 128 minutes. Now playing at Bay Area art house theaters.
