Stotan! – Chris Crutcher

In a sudden spurt of activity, I’ve begun going through my boxes of read books, in order to winnow through them, discard the dross, and catalogue those fortune tomes that I decide to keep. I’ve thus far made my way through about six hundred volumes, and kept about half. I have discovered that I really spend too much time and money on crap. On a happier note, I have also discovered, or rather re-discovered, a number of old friends, of which Stotan! is one.
Best friends Walker (our narrator), Nortie, Lion and Jeff comprise Frost High School's swim team; when they see a sign up sheet for Stotan week they decide to participate, even though it's the week of vacation before Christmas, and even though they don't know what it is. It's being run by their coach, Max, and that's all they need to know.
Herb Elliot was an Australian runner in the late 1950's and early 1960's; his trainer, Percy Cerruti, coined the term "stotan" - it's a hybrid of stoic and spartan, and the week the boys have signed up for will push them considerably past what they think are their limits, as well as bond them more firmly than they could have believed.
As with all of his novels, in Stotan! Crutcher explores some familiar themes – team work within the a solitary sport (in this case swimming); sport as a vehicle for empowerment; the value of a parental role model in the presence of an absent or inadequate father figure; morality as a choice, often as a difficult choice; the obligation of the strong to protect the weak; and the angst and confusion of adolescence.
Lest I make this novel sound turgid, preachy or dull let me hasten to add that it is a brilliant and compelling read. This is one of Crutcher’s early works, and as such is less distilled, complex and crystalline than some of his later novels. Despite this his writing is consistent – as in all Crutcher’s work, the characters are layered and believable, the plot is gripping and unpredictable, and the novel ends with threads unresolved, like real life.
Stotan! was published in the mid 1980’s, and as a result one aspect, toward the end, is slightly dated due to medical and pharmacological advances unseen twenty years ago. Crutcher is to be congratulated, though, for managing to write something that is otherwise wholly contemporary, as engaging and relevant now as it was then. – Alex