Lewis Buzbee, Author of The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop
I love this book so much. And admire it greatly. And have much to say.
So, first off, it’s just a great read. I mean, from word go, I was there, and swept into the story, and didn't want to stop. Not a glitch. That alone! I love the world and the characters, and their predicaments.
And it’s a real novel too, deeply layered. Frank O'Connor says that novels are about “the effect of time on characters” and "characters in their society.” We get both here, those long lovely decades between Jack and Carol, and how we go everywhere in this world, from Larkspur to Murphys and beyond.
The structure is genius. I love the opening, it points, quietly, to what’s ahead in the last sections. But then there’s that very patient and winning long section at the front, where we follow Jack and Carol over the years. And that is so wonderful: we really love these two. And all along you are very quietly sowing the seeds of what's to come. Best of all, it feels like a real life, as opposed to some plot-driven novel where the characters are really just cogs. This book is true. Then we hit that last stretch, which is so tense, and then which pays off in such an original, and true, climax. You could have gone all guns blazing and troped the hell out of it. But no. The ending is so satisfying, so real, and then those lovely denouements, with Molly, the gang, and finally Jack and Carol in the mountains. What a beautiful ending. Damn.
It’s a great Northern California novel. Like yourself, I'm fourth generation, and I not only recognized all these places, but felt them and smelled them and felt them viscerally. I'm a huge PG fan--Jack should have stayed at Borg's at least once--reveled in that. But all the other places too. And not just visceral, but the sense of history you bring to each place.
But I think my favorite aspect of the novel--one which rarely gets considered except as a side bar--is the story of this friendship. Jack and Carol, oh my. It really is the focus of the novel, and it’s so tender and mysterious and, this word again, true.
Then there’s the genius of tracing the history and sociology of the White Supremacist movement. So right on, and so revealing. And best of all, seen through the focus of the novel, that is Carol's work and Jack’s accompaniment. There’s no “teaching” in here, all of that comes up out of the characters and their lives, so organic. And in tracing these movements, you also really highlight, frighteningly so, the danger and source of our current world. Just perfect. Ray Carver says that fiction is the bringing of one world to another, and boy howdy, do you do that here. But with such grace.
The characters! I love each and every one of them. Even Botsworth and Kate. But all of them. Sierra is perfect, Max and Abbey, Billy and Molly and Chris, and on and on. I love them because you, the writer, love them. And as in the best novels, each character has their own novel in which they are the main characters--that's what Forster says about “minor” characters. There are no minor characters here. And you treat each one with the same seriousness and the same comic slant.
Do I have to say anything about the "writing." You could do none of the above without great writing. Smooth, and funny, and able to shift gears when needed.
Damn, John, this is a fantastic novel.
Finally, the format. I loved reading it in this format, and just genius whoever came up with it. Makes me quite envious. Kudos, too, to whoever designed the page and scene and chapter formatting. It was so easy to read, each column so easy to follow. It’s a scrumptious piece of bookmaking.
I hope you sell a million of these!
—Lewis Buzbee, Author of The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop