My summer with Buster Keaton
by Matt Phelan
2013 / 240 pages

Before there were silent films, there was vaudeville. Pay your nickel and you could sit in on a dozen acts: jugglers, comedians, contortionists, animal trainers, tightrope actors, and more.

In 1908, vaudeville came to Bluffton, Michigan, a troop of actors looking to take their summer break by the lake. And Henry can’t get enough of hanging out with the whole lot of them, especially a boy his own age, Buster Keaton. Henry wants to learn how Buster can take a licking in his on-stage slapstick act and bounce right up again, but all Buster wants to do is play baseball.

While Henry is fictional, Buster Keaton is not. He was one of the silent film era’s biggest comedic stars, maybe not quite as well known as Charlie Chaplin, but twice as funny. This account of his early years is maybe as much supposition as fact, accurate in the broad overview if not in any of the details.

Bluffton is an intriguing read for the slice of life it presents from more than 100 years past. Back then entertainment wasn’t available at the ready in a person’s back pocket, so when it came to your town, that was an event. The Keaton family act was physical, like the films Buster made later. He always knew how to pratfall with the best of them, and without getting hurt. And that the ol’ “Stone Face Keaton” never cracks a smile makes it all the funnier.

The story is told over the course of three summers – Henry and Buster become the best of friends, a girl comes between them, at least for a bit, and then, finally, life takes them in very different directions.

Cautions

The language concerns are limited to “Jumping Jehoshaphat,” “Holy smokes,” and “Holy cow.” Also worth a note is that the physical nature of the Keaton family act had an early version of Child Protective Services investigating the family for child abuse. While no charges were laid, it is a sober subject – child abuse – even if it is only touched on in passing. That’s why this isn’t for young readers, though the size, and quiet pacing, means they aren’t likely to pick it up anyways.

Conclusion

For the right person this will be a quick read. It’s 240 pages but not too many words on each, and so much is shown rather than told.

It is for the history buff, especially if anyone who likes older films. Keaton was one of the biggest movie stars of the 1920s and 30s,  and we get to see what shaped him early on. While Bluffton is a beautifully done book, it is not one with universal appeal – I think it fascinating, but I know what only a select few will agree.