Book Blurb:
In Bonhomie, Ohio, a stolen moment of passion, sparked in the exuberant aftermath of the Allied victory in Europe, binds Cal Jenkins, a man wounded not in war but by his inability to serve in it, to Margaret Salt, a woman trying to obscure her past. Cal’s wife, Becky, has a spiritual gift: She is a seer who can conjure the dead, helping families connect with those they’ve lost. Margaret’s husband, Felix, is serving on a Navy cargo ship, out of harm’s way—until a telegram suggests that the unthinkable might have happened.
Later, as the country reconstructs in the postwar boom, a secret grows in Bonhomie—but nothing stays buried forever in a small town. Against the backdrop of some of the most transformative decades in modern America, the consequences of that long-ago encounter ripple through the next generation of both families, compelling them to reexamine who they thought they were and what the future might hold.
My Review: 4.5 stars
Buckeye by Patrick Ryan is a wonderfully written novel that was pegged to be the best book of the fall by authors like Anne Patchett and Ann Napolitano. He completely nailed this one and I’m looking forward to checking out his back list. He skillfully writes through an intimate lens of small-town America. His gift with language will force you to keep reading.
The book follows two families, the Jenkins and the Salts, whose boys become good friends. It also examines the marriages of these two families which are complex, surprising and ever-changing. It takes place just before WWII to the years after Vietnam.
The book is filled with fantastically drawn characters, amazingly meaningful relationships and a lot about learning to forgive. This wildly descriptive book hits on most major historical events and how they may be experienced by small town America. Themes of guilt, secreted sexuality, life-altering secrets, going to war, PTSD, physical disabilities, friendship and family are woven through the entire
Truly, every storyline is sandwiched within the context of American history. This is a memorable book that book clubs will devour.
Quotes I liked:
The things that we love tell us what we are.”
“The wisdom that comes with age was needling, he found, because it brought the clarity of hindsight without the means to change anything.”
“We aren’t living in the past; the past is living in us.”
“What is it about time that confounds us? We spend it. We save it. We while it away. We waste it. We kill it. We complain about not having enough of it”
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