November 06, 2004
The Greenbrier is the setting for pleasurable novel

By Robert S. Conte
For the Sunday Gazette-Mail

It isn’t often that you come across an entire novel set at The Greenbrier. In fact, you have to go back to Rex Stout’s 1938 tale “Too Many Cooks,” featuring his detective hero Nero Wolfe, to find one.

Thus, it is something of a literary event to pick up “A Posturing of Fools” by Brewster Milton Robertson (River City Publishing) and find yourself following the adventures of one Logan Baird, a pharmaceutical rep, as he works his way through an incredibly hectic few days attending a major medical meeting.

Saying Baird attends a meeting doesn’t come anywhere near to describing the goings on, which stretch from playing the Old White Course; dealing with an accident at a gambling establishment; meeting Sam Snead; networking at a delightfully delineated Top Notch cocktail party; getting a significant letter from an old friend; pondering the wobbly trajectory of his career; and, along the way, having a couple of steamy encounters with the local ladies. Logan Baird is a busy, busy man for three days. I must say, however, I was little unsure where I was going at the start of the book. Robertson’s subtitle is “A Novel of American Ambition and Pretension,” and it surely is that. But there is one character who is clearly meant to be pretension personified — he happens to be Logan Baird’s boorish boss — although he comes off as awfully one-dimensional and more irritating than enlightening. We meet him early on and I’m happy to report that he gets lost as the story progresses in an ever-increasing cast of characters. Also, Robertson is a major Greenbrier fan, which, of course, is gratifying.

Having duly noted my quibbles, I say give the story a chance to get going and I think you’ll find, as I certainly did, that it is a great read. Robertson gets a whole bunch of plot lines going and juggles them adeptly.

Logan Baird is an attractive character — did I mention that there are some steamy parts? — and following his negotiating process through and around various potential pitfalls and landmines is a treat.

Robertson controls the story with great skill, and there are a goodly number of laugh-out-loud lines where his cryptic social insights detonate on target. At root, this is a good old-fashioned tale of the dilemmas brought about by the sometimes contradictory demands of career and family and loyalty, not to mention the conflicts brought about by ambition and temptation.