“Vestments”: John Reimringer’s New Novel

By Adam Heidebrink
Contributing Writer

On Sunday, November 21, author John Reimringer returns to the city of his birth, Fargo, to read from his debut novel “Vestments.”

Reimringer’s novel was given a starred review and awarded Pick of the Week by Publishers Weekly, and for good reason: Vestments overcomes a drawn out portrayal of priests in literature as either “otherworldly do-gooders” or “monsters.”

Reimringer reminds his reader that priests are, behind the robes and rituals, ordinary people , who —like everyone else—suffer periodic longings of the flesh and struggle with vice.

The reading begins at 2:00 p.m. Sunday, at Zandbroz Variety, 420 Broadway.
Vestments is set in St. Paul, where Reimringer currently resides and his family dates back four generations to 1856—just two years after the city was founded.

His strong familial roots provide Reimringer an intimacy with the city and a keen desire to portray historical St. Paul in all its complexity. The busy streets of St. Paul offer a cast of characters as diverse as the city itself.

The protagonist, James Dressler—a priest on leave from his parish for some minor provocative letters—returns to his complicated family life in St. Paul. In fact, it is within this family dynamic that James identifies that “life rarely offered clear choices between good and evil acts, but rather wrenching decisions between bad and worse outcomes, made without knowing which would be bad and which worse.”

Together, the cityscape and characters create an authentic feel surrounding and interacting with the action of the novel. In the city, James’s wayward journey is far from isolated. The city and the story of James Dressler coalesce, merging into one great force: James as a part of the city, and the city a part of James. Beyond the plot, “Vestments” is an ode to the splendor of St. Paul, past and present.

These enigmatic choices humanize James, mirroring problems frequently encountered in the family-centered lifestyle common in the Midwest. The characters in “Vestments” attempt to answer questions of loyalty and understanding: how does a mother explain to her acquaintances her son has returned home due to misconduct? How does a father reconcile his lifestyle with the far differing worldview of his children, after raising them for so long? How does a Christian balance his or her devotion to God with the various demands of life?

These are matters of love, of life, and Reimringer weaves these familiar struggles together into one lyrical story of sacrifice and atonement.

Reimringer’s desire to write dates back to his early childhood; however, his “education as a writer really began in [his] twenties with picking up a copy of Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls.”

From then on, Reimringer knew Hemingway had stylistic techniques he should learn. In reading and rereading Hemingway’s In Our Time, he comments that “it looks as simple and clear as a northern lake in the summer, and once you break the surface it unfolds and unfolds.” The structurally plain sentences of
Hemingway allow for depth and layering without overcomplicating the text.

The simple, direct sentences in Vestments echo the linguistic qualities of his first and foremost inspiration. Reimringer, too, emphasizes personal dialogue and avoids extensive psychological description. He establishes external indicators to reveal the characters’ inner turmoil—the silent swallow of beer when no one knows what to say, or punching the wall after an abrupt ending to an intimate phone call.

Essentially, the reader must discover the emotional state of the characters the
same way he or she would identify emotional distress in real life, by using perception and interpretation.

The several priest-figures who appear throughout “Vestments” convey a multilayered, subjective understanding of what qualities a priest may possess.
James’s devotion to the church emerges from his chaotic childhood; however, not all priests hold such a firm commitment to the church. Mick, as much a
cynic as a priest, enjoys womanizing and life in the fast lane. Reimringer has done his research on the Catholic Church and knows well the varying degrees of seriousness with which priests take their vows.

Morally and religiously speaking, where is the line between good and bad priest? “Vestments” explores several answers by developing priests as estranged from each other as Mick and James, and introduces a gay yet celibate priest. Ultimately, Reimringer leaves the decision to the reader.

The core of the story emphasizes the importance of family. In a divorced household, James seeks to reconcile the differences between his priesthood and his father’s alcoholic and morally compromising lifestyle.

During the family struggle, James states: “I sometimes wonder if the lives of happy families are made up of series of moments.” The protagonist suggests that moments, or a series of influential experiences, decipher whether the family is happy or not. In this sense, there is hope for the Dressler family—they have had a fair share of positive experiences; however, the recent prominence of bad
moments destabilizes the family and creates a multitude of problems.

By the end of the novel, however, Reimringer establishes a life-affirming message
and presents a prayer and a poem to the city of St. Paul, praising the various parts of the city commonly underappreciated or unnoticed—there appears a ubiquitous beauty to life:

“Glory by to you, dancers; to hawks for their many names; to baseballs for falling into green outfields and waiting mitts, to white nights, the slice of skates, the evening light of the Mississippi. Glory be to the great city at its head, to Saint Paul and the working men who built its churches and taverns, unloaded its steamboats, and laid down its trolley lines and its railroad to the Northwest.”

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If You Go

What: John Reimringer
Where: Zandbroz Variety
When: Sun, Nov 21, 2pm
Info: 701.239.4729, 800.808.4833