Jack Fuller (1946–2016)

Jack Fuller, the Pulitzer Prize-winning former editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune, proves with his book "What Is Happening to News" that all of us involved in workplace learning and performance need to read far beyond the artificial walls surrounding our field of play. While the book ostensibly leads us through the well-documented crisis and evolution of contemporary journalism, its focus on how our brains absorb and cause us to react to all the stimulus we encounter is perfect reading for anyone involved in training-teaching-learning. Fuller starts off with explorations of how our brains actually learn. His third chapter, "Models of the Mind," is particularly helpful both in its brief survey and its description of the physiological reasons why practice makes perfect: "the connection between neurons strengthens through the coincidence of their mutual firing. As the neuroscience slogan has it, 'Cells that fire together wire together.' The more frequent the coincidence, the stronger the connection" (p. 34). For Fuller, that helps explain why repetition of statements through the media we use has a long-term impact on how we perceive the world. And when he moves into a section on "the inundated brain," he offers a thought worth quoting not only to those interested in why news reporting focuses so much on negative stories but also to those of us interested in knowing what happens to learners who are attempting to do too many things at one time: "Time pressure alone also increases cognitive challenge and emotional response. Some studies have shown that when given tasks under severe deadlines, people use more negative information--which suggests that negative emotions are in play--than when doing the same task without being time pressured. Multitasking and information overload, too, increase the challenge to the brain’s processing resources. And when a erson'’s information processing capacity is stressed through information overload or multitasking, she is more likely to rely on emotional cues and use social stereotypes in making decisions about another person" (p. 61). News junkies and trainer-teacher-learners alike will find plenty to admire in Fuller's work--and will leave with a solid foundation for better serving the learners with whom they work.… (lisätietoja)

Abbeville, by Jack Fuller
I was more disappointed in this book than in anything I’ve read in a long time. The author is a talented writer, the subject matter interesting and unique, the characters empathetic, but the gaps and jumps in the narration were akin to watching a movie that starts with a disclaimer stating the film “has been modified from its original version to run in the time allotted and edited for content.”
The book begins with the grandson of the main character, Karl Schrumpeter, returning to the small Illinois farm town his grandfather steered through times of growth and prosperity and into the Great Depression. With the stage set, the author returns to the point of view of Karl and begins to relate his life story. Besides his hometown of Abbeville, Karl’s story also takes him to Chicago (providing an interesting glimpse into the workings of the Chicago Board of Trade near the end of the 19th century), and to the horrors of the trenches of France during World War I. Karl also travels to a logging camp in the north woods of Michigan, where he starts a lifelong love affair with fly fishing. The author is adept at switching between the story of the grandfather and the narrator, who has just lost his fortune, security, and sense of identity with the dot com bust, and apparently wants to find answers to his future in how his grandfather handled his own downturn in fortune.
So all the pieces are in place for a satisfying and impactful read…but something goes wrong. I am going to give the credit for this book’s failure to the editor. Either that person neglected to make the writer go back and flesh out the missing connections, or cut out the parts that would have moved this manuscript from ‘okay’ to ‘memorable’.
It’s a real shame, because the plot has a solid foundation and the writer, Jack Fuller, has a descriptive yet smooth writing style that is easy to fall into. Unfortunately, too many storylines and several key characters are abandoned before they can make their contribution to the overall story. For me, the book ended so abruptly that I turned the page to continue reading and found only blank pages left, completely missing any cues that the last paragraph was, indeed “The End.”
Still, if you approach this book as an unfinished painting, you will find a great deal to enjoy; just don’t expect to walk away with a sense of fulfillment.… (lisätietoja)

Abbeville is a short, well-written novel built on a solid structure, but it should be twice as long to do justice to the story Jack Fuller attempts. The book tells the parallel stories of the narrator’s attempt to rebuild his life after the bursting of the dot-com bubble and his grandfather’s own boom and bust struggle in the Great Depression.

The grandfather’s story predominates and involves several complex subplots. The central theme to the story is the conflict between the grandfather’s desire to succeed and his perceived duty to help people. This themes plays out primarily in the relationship between the grandfather and his younger brother, whose wastrel ways result in the grandfather’s financial and social downfall.

Unfortunately, there is not enough flesh on the bones. Both the plot and the characters are too sparsely drawn to make them compelling. For example, the key act that culminates in the grandfather’s ruin is described so cryptically, in just one brief sentence, that the reader must speculate about why what happened happened. At least one key storyline just ends with no explanation other than that people often disappeared during the Great Depression. Other story lines simply fizzle out.

Without details, the characters and their relationships are flat and stiff. The tension between the brothers is described so sparingly that it is difficult to fully understand the relationship, let alone to care about it. The grandfather comes off as less a noble man sacrificing for his internal sense of honor as an unsympathetic, thick headed martyr. The narrator never rises above a character sketch of a concerned but clueless father.

It could be that Fuller was trying for a style as strong, clean, and minimalist as his rural Midwest setting. But the result reads more like an unfinished outline.… (lisätietoja)