It’s hard to decide whether author Reg Henry’s facility for writing the kind of prose that makes you read it twice — not because you missed something but because you want to spend more time with his craft — is due to a 40-year journalism career, including 10 years at the helm of the Monterey Herald, or because the story itself is so engaging. Doesn’t matter. Even though the first chapter is titled, “In the End,” we keep reading. We do it particularly to find out why, in the first paragraph, the protagonist has died at 65.
“Initially, I wanted to start the book with a pub scene that has a brawl—something to grab reader attention,” Henry said. “Instead, it’s a memorial service for the main character, set in a little bar he frequented in Monterey. It’s a great way to build the story, as so many characters start reliving their experiences of him.”
“The Art of Stating the Obvious,” published last month, is Henry’s third book, a sardonic look into the meaning of life. His first, “The Wry World of Reg Henry,” is a collection of his most engaging columns, followed by “Love in the Late Edition,” about a man who, with his wife, embarks on his hard-earned retirement years, only to find himself utterly alone.
Readers of Henry’s newest release will pore through 300 pages having attended the funeral of Robert “Duffer” O’Grady, a guy they didn’t know, willing to discover not only who he was but also what he became, and why it mattered.
“Duffer is an outsider, who observes,” Henry said. “No one sees him observing, but he’s paying attention, taking it all in, storing information. His father is dismissive of him, relegating him to his shadow–a perfect place, it turns out, to collect material and become a comedian.”
Henry has a sense of humor, but he is not a comedian. He is a humorist, he clarifies, those who write to amuse and provoke thought about current issues and events. Comedians, he says, primarily perform to generate laughter as the audience relates to the irony of the gag.
“The Art of Stating the Obvious” is actually a tribute to irony, not only via the title of the book but also because this work of fiction lifts elements from real life and builds a plot around it. Everything that happens in the book is accurate, says Henry, but not necessarily true. And the parts that are, are being played by characters that are not.
“Humor is a deep human characteristic which can bring down your guard, open you up to different perspectives,” Henry said. “Every book I write evolves, and every story finds its way via some element of humor. I typically start out planning to write one thing and then find myself writing something wholly other. Still, when writing satire, you have to ask yourself if it is funny enough, if it will be a leap too far or if it will land just right?”
Way with words
Although he has lived much of his life in America, Henry’s voice reveals that while he was born in Singapore, he was raised in Australia, where his father was a journalist, a manager of Reuters World News, who became a war correspondent. Henry believes his destiny to become a journalist as well was, therefore, a sort of birthright.
Called into the Australian Army and deployed to Vietnam, he worked in the public relations corps, which included a recorded newscast five days a week. After the war, he secured a job on the sports desk at the Times of London, followed by a move to Pennsylvania, where he became deputy editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
An invitation to serve as “The Editor,” he says, of The Monterey Herald — then owned by the folks at the helm of the Post-Gazette — brought Henry to the Peninsula, where he oversaw editorial operations for five years, until the newspaper was sold. He returned to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where he invested 20 years as a nationally syndicated columnist. This gave him the material for his first book, “The Wry World of Reg Henry.”
Upon retirement, Henry returned to the Monterey Peninsula, where became a docent at Point Lobos, applying his writing acumen to the “Point Lobos” magazine and newsletter. He also turned his attention to writing books.
“For those meant to do it, writing is an itch you have to scratch,” Henry said. “As a nationally syndicated columnist, my work went into more than 200 newspapers across the country. I wrote serious articles in serious ways and humorous pieces in ironic ways. And I always thought I would write a book—and finally did.”
By the end of the book, he says, everyone lives happily ever after. Essentially.
