Ever since we read The Water Horse with my daughters, (loved the book, hated the movie) I seem to have developed a fondness for stories about mythical creatures that live undersea. This is one of the many reasons I wanted to read The Monsters of Templeton. That, and the cover is just really cool – and I do sometimes judge a book by its cover.
Willie Upton has returned to her hometown of Templeton, NY in disgrace. She is pregnant by her married graduate school professor, attempted to run over his wife with an airplane, and has returned home on the day that the corpse of a giant prehistoric monster has mysteriously surfaced on Lake Glimmerglass. And that, as they say, is just the beginning.
Lauren Groff makes her debut with a wild tale of monsters of all sorts, some hidden in the lake, and others walking all around it. Willie’s return home is plagued with shocks. Her former hippie mother has found religion and taken up with a very chaste minister. In her newfound religion, she has found the strength to tell Willie that, contrary to what she was previously led to believe, her father is known, and, in fact, resides in her hometown. This leads to a kind of Mamma Mia-esque storyline, but on a much larger scale. All the men in town, some mentors, some friends, and a whole group of jogging buddies, all become suspect. Her mother gives a clue about her father, but Willie must solve the mystery on her own. Her story after this relies on a complex map of her ever-changing family tree, and there are diagrams and photos that are sometimes helpful and other times just hilarious.
The story is set in the imaginary town of Templeton; borrowed from James Fenimore Cooper, who wrote his series The Leatherstocking Tales based on his hometown of Cooperstown. Groff, also from Cooperstown, borrows the character of Marmaduke Temple for her story’s beginning (JFC’s character based on his father, the town’s founder). The path from Marmaduke Temple to Willie Upton is long and convoluted, but you will want to read it anyway. The town of Templeton is itself a strong character, with a seeming will and point of view all it’s own. There are a lot of bunny trails here, and many of them serve no purpose to the plot, but Groff’s writing is so good that you will follow her down them and, in the end, be very glad you did.
I really, really enjoyed the Monsters of Templeton. I thought it was beautifully written. I read so fast that I often forget books, but the image of those old men running through the early morning fog is still with me six months later.
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