A rich, resonant, and vividly imagined character study. Schwartz’s second novel traces the contours of one man’s life, or his “journey to spirit,” across seven decades. As a small child growing up in 1940s and ’50s Newark, New Jersey, Cameron Simmons is so slow to walk and talk that his dad remarks there must be a “tortoise walking around his hair.” The comment, made by a generally aloof father, stays with Cam for the rest of his life—one spent, in part, obtaining multiple degrees at Rutgers University during the ’60s; avoiding the Vietnam War draft to pursue an ultimately underwhelming career in pharmacology; and having a tumultuous series of typically fumbling and often chaste relationships, including an early failed marriage prior to a more long-lasting union. He also raises an adopted son with a tenderness his father never bestowed on him; switches jobs to become, at 6 feet, 5 inches in height, the tallest—if not most successful—eyeglasses salesman in the Eastern United States; and settles down, at a later age, to begin a career as a writer with a modest following on LinkedIn. However, Cam’s figurative tortoise—eternally perched atop his head, wandering and searching, undercutting his day-to-day being with a constant sense of precipice and inadequacy—hampers his joy. Something feels, for him, forever missing, as manifested in myriad suicide attempts. Schwartz ably captures this feeling of absence in confident, cohesive first-person prose, divided into carefully considered and often wry chapters: “All the while, the tortoise was still hanging around, precipitating lapses in my development, confidence, and general sense of where the hell I was going in life.” Cam’s finely detailed and distinctive voice never falters, evoking the protagonists in the works of such authors as John Irving and Mordecai Richler. By straddling the political and the personal—from the Watergate hearings and burgeoning climate protests to Cam’s persistent, often aimless yearnings—the book offers a wide-reaching tale of humanity. A rich, resonant, and vividly imagined character study.
There’s a Tortoise in My Hair, a novel of a life worth living. The words flowed like velvet, I laughed, and I cried following the 60-year journey of the life of an extraordinary and blessed man. The characters’ energy and mental acrobatics left me exhausted at times. This is a rare book you know you pick back up to read again. Growing up and still being part of the Weequahic community gives you the nostalgia you could only get from Philp Roth till now.
Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2023
Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2023
Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2024
“Capturing each moment of anguish or hilarity with painstaking detail, Calvin Barry Schwartz’s There’s a Tortoise in My Hair is more than a life story; it’s a legacy of love—for the world, for humanity, and for the pains of life that shape our ability to love in the first place”
Betty L’Ursula
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read.
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2024
Verified Purchase
Unique, intelligent, and real. Very enjoyable story with real life struggles and discovery. excellent story that many would relate to, and thus perhaps inspire them through one’s own life experience and challenges.
Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2024
The protagonist of this well-told and ultimately spiritual tale, Cameron, spends much of the novel wandering through life, feeling like something is missing. Eventually he comes to realize that something has been guiding his life all along. This novel is filled with such a multitude of details about growing up in New Jersey, marrying, starting a family, and eventually aging, that you come away with the sense of a real life actually lived. Don’t expect a big Hollywood style ending; writer Calvin Schwartz is working on something truer, closer to our real lives.
“Cameron is “Everyman” in the modern world, living a quotidian life that’s enervated by racism, sexism, genderism, ableism, and wokeism, that is to say, a mind-altering, coif-dwelling tortoise…conspiring to defy spiritual development……”
Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2024
Verified Purchase
A sincere, wise account on a character’s life, spiced with self-irony, abounding in sharp insights on relationships, experience, history, business, and, most eminently, the seemingly gradual yet imminent passage of life. Coming out of this book, I found myself reflecting for hours on how truly enriching those small, easily taken-for-granted events in our lives can turn out at the sobering end of “the long and winding road.” Calvin Schwartz offers a candid approach to the multifaceted essence of personal accountability, gracefully transitioning the reader’s attention from a life’s obsessively endless demands and distractions into a spiral of inner peace and confidence through spiritual awakening that is inescapable to those in search of more than just personal fulfillment.
I owed the author of this book a favor and needed to read his book, but I must admit that the title didn’t really excite me. I procrastinated for almost a year. I finally took the plunge and dove in. I’m so glad that I did! This book is one of the most honest and raw narratives of an American man that I have ever read. He has a great sense of humor that had me laughing out loud at some parts. He’s also an incredibly humble and a talented writer. I enjoyed reading about his experiences in college, as an unhappy pharmacist, a glasses salesman, a journalist, writer, and teacher. What a varied career! All recounted with a sense of dry humor. His efforts to get laid as a young man were hilarious. I also enjoyed his sense of mysticism and spirituality and unexplained, almost supernatural events. What a great read! I highly recommend it! You can’t judge this book by its unsexy title.
Calvin Schwartz published his 2nd novel ‘There’s A Tortoise in My Hair’ last October 2023. It received the prestigious Kirkus Star for excellence. Kirkus Review also compared Calvin’s style to John Irving (World According to Garp) Review link: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/calvin-schwartz/theres-a-tortoise-in-my-hair-a-journey-to-spirit/
The novel is on Amazon & Kindle: https://amzn.to/46CveE9 He’s also doing book clubs, libraries & Zooms.
** ** **
Calvin Barry Schwartz’s There’s a Tortoise in My Hair shares some stylistic and thematic similarities with Philip Roth’s work, particularly in its introspective and personal narrative tone. Both authors delve deeply into themes of identity, cultural heritage, and personal struggle, often set against the backdrop of New Jersey’s urban or suburban environments.
Similarities: Setting and Cultural Context: Both writers evoke the American experience in Newark, New Jersey. Schwartz explicitly references Roth, pointing to shared geographical and cultural inspirations. They explore the dynamics of Eastern European immigrant families and the challenges faced by first-generation Americans.
Exploration of Identity: Schwartz and Roth focus on their protagonists’ struggles with self-perception, societal expectations, and personal insecurities. Schwartz’s metaphorical “tortoise in my hair” mirrors Roth’s use of humor and symbolism to dissect identity and familial pressures.
Stream-of-Consciousness Style: Schwartz, like Roth, employs a reflective, sometimes meandering narrative, rich with personal anecdotes and social commentary.
Emotional Honesty: Both authors write with raw vulnerability, offering unfiltered insights into the psyche of their protagonists.
Differences: Tone: Roth often leans into satire and existential despair, while Schwartz adopts a more optimistic and spiritual tone, focusing on redemption and self-discovery.
Philosophical and Spiritual Undertones: Schwartz explores spirituality and synchronicity as central themes, contrasting with Roth’s often more secular existential inquiries.
Structure and Approach: Roth’s narratives are tightly structured, sometimes polemical, while Schwartz’s writing is conversational and episodic, reflecting his stream-of-consciousness style.
Overall, while Schwartz’s writing shares a cultural and stylistic lineage with Roth, his tone is more redemptive and spiritually inclined. Roth’s work, by contrast, frequently interrogates the darker aspects of human nature and societal hypocrisy.
Calvin Schwartz doesn’t hold back on sharing his deepest thoughts of life, love, and lust in this revelation of a life lived with ‘a tortoise in my hair;’ a brilliant metaphor for living with a creative mind that took time to sort out its way in the world. Schwartz reveals a rare, unvarnished look at what goes through the mind of someone who experiences creativity, passion, spirituality, and humanity in huge doses of unfettered energy, accompanied by the downside of the valley of despair. Part memoir, part personal development guidebook, the book’s structure and well-written prose keeps the reader intrigued, along for the ride to see where this journey goes and if the resolution hoped for materializes. Readers will warm to the reflections on historical twists and turns from the Vietnamese War to the COVID pandemic.