by Patrick Ryan, 310 pages
Once upon a time, Theresa married Dermott and gave him two children, Matt and Katherine. And then he left them. Then Theresa married Roy and gave
him two children, Joe and Frankie. And then
he left them. These seven lives intersect, part, and ricochet off each other in random yet believable patterns as they each try to make their way, sometimes relying on one another, sometimes hurting one another, over the next forty-odd years. The one thing that will never change, however much they may or may not appreciate it at any given time, is that they are forever a family, and one with Theresa as their anchoring link.
Told in the form of non-chronological, short-story-like chapters, this novel draws the reader into the emotional life of each family member, revealing clues about what they've done in one chapter and hints as to why they've done it in another, letting the reader piece it all together little by little. From the first page to the last, I was invested in the mystery of who these people were and what kept them together and what tore them apart. Art, NASA, the mafia, in-laws, the economy, hurricanes, high school, college, love, death, jealousy, drugs, sex, gossip, Star Wars, Slip 'n' Slides, aging dogs, AIDS, and a million other things all come crashing down on their heads or lift them out of the miasma that is the dysfunctional American family.
And I want more. Ryan has said in recent interviews that he's working on another novel about these characters, and I can't wait to read it. While Theresa is the keystone, and while utterly sympathetic Joe is very loosely based on the author, Frankie is by far my favorite and the one I most want to protect. He is both the most resilient and the most vulnerable. His precocious, adorable childhood obsession with all things science fiction resurfacing as a psychological buoy later in his troubled life just breaks my heart...and comforts me at the same time. At turns funny and sad, surreal and familiar, this touching debut novel promises good things to come (and having read and enjoyed Ryan's three subsequently published YA novels, I speak from experience). It'll make you cry, too, but somehow that's ok.
