‘Lay Down Your Weary Tune’ a Meditative Study of Life

In the age of stories like “My Week with Marilyn” and “The End of the Tour,” works that focus on the collision between cultural icons and young, aimless men might seem contrived and overused. W.B. Belcher’s novel “Lay Down Your Weary Tune” proves otherwise by redeeming the genre. While the setup initially appears similar to other plots in the genre, Belcher quickly swerves off the expected path to produce a surprising story that touches upon universal topics in life. Through careful character studies and an engaging, philosophical plot, Belcher’s debut is a meditative piece of fiction that evokes timeless ideas and emotions.

“Lay Down Your Weary Tune” fills its pages with characters and a story that epitomize its themes of the tragic consequences of past mistakes and the tradition of American myth-making. The protagonist and narrator, Jack Wyeth, is a college drop-out and would-be writer recuperating from an engagement that ended violently. Eli Page is an aging folk singer and “true counterculture icon” now forced to combat his failing mind. When Jack receives an offer to join Eli in Galesville, a small town on the border of New York and Vermont, and ghostwrite the idol’s biography, the past and present collide and uncover drama, secret guilts, and the realities behind broken individuals.

While Jack’s time with Eli acts as the foundation of the plot, it is not the novel’s main concern. “What you see here, on this stack of paper, is my story,” Jack narrates at the novel’s conclusion. “Eli just helped me play the right notes in the right order.” This proclamation asserts the novel’s greater interest in exploring Jack’s character—a narrative decision that Belcher is able to execute well by giving the protagonist many moments of solitude—instead of binding his story tightly to that of Eli’s. In that way, though the author’s decision to steer the focus away from Jack and Eli’s slowly developing friendship is surprising, it is a successful technique that allows him to fully develop his characters and the themes that they expound. For instance, Belcher characterizes Jack as gravely imperfect: He is distrustful, unable to put his father’s abandonment behind him. This flaw, however, becomes one way that Belcher considers the ways the past can affect the present.

Belcher also carefully emphasizes his themes by juxtaposing the characters’ stories against the larger backdrop of society. Indeed, social commentary is interspersed throughout Jack’s narration: “Everyone was worried about anthrax in white envelopes, snipers on the highways, airplanes falling from the sky; they were thinking about wars in caves, paint-by-number terror charts, and economic hijinks.” These references to American politics allow the novel to gain some realism, and as a result the novel often feels like an exploration of American culture. “[People are] happy to see their heroes knocked to the pavement only to get back up, bloodied but alive. It’s an American tradition,” Jack notes early in the book, indicating a clear relationship between fans’ reaction to Eli and American beliefs in general. Yet despite the explicit links between the United States and the characters, Belcher uses this direct connection only as a means to further paint the characters as real representatives of universal perspectives and beliefs. Throughout, the fear that Galesville feels towards outsider Eli represents the suspicions groups often harbor against those who are different. Meanwhile, Jack’s ignorant idolatry of Eli speaks to the popular desire to mythologize other human beings.

Strong writing supports Belcher’s brilliant explorations of ideas and characters: The author’s language is simple and unassuming while also being potent. Belcher does not attempt to impress readers by using complex vocabulary. Instead he tells his story with poetic prose, imaginative in its ability to express complicated and serious concepts with a certain musicality—a fitting quality for a novel that concerns a singer. “She was the epicenter of grief, alone in time and space, floating about the casket with the rotting body inside, among the blue hue of heaven inside the flag, beyond its stars,” Jack says of a widow during her husband’s wake. The poignant language encapsulated here permeates the entire novel, contributing to the story’s reflective and often mournful mood.

Through its thoughtful structure and execution, “Lay Down Your Weary Tune” ultimately presents a powerful and moving exploration of pasts and legends in the American imagination. The complexity of the novel’s treatment of its themes not only gives it an emotional weight but also distinguishes it from similar stories. In that way, Belcher’s debut is an incredible read and—if it is any indication of his future works—only foreshadows his potential and prowess as a budding writer.

—Crimson staff writer Ha D.H. Le can be reached at ha.le@thecrimson.com.