If you haven't read this book yet, you don't know what you're missing. Don't let it happen to you. If you're an avid book reader, like myself, you know you'll find maybe one book out of ten that really is special, and this book has got to be one of my favorite so far this year. It's beautifully written and a pleasure to read. John Searles is a real wordsmith. I was familiar with Searles writing from other publications, like Out, and other magazines, so I was very excited when he new debut novel was published. I wasn't disappointed. Here is a story that will keep you up at night till you're on the last page.
The story takes place in 1971. It tells the story of Dominick Pindle, a fifteen-year- old boy, who lives in Holedo, Massachusetts with his parents, who seem like a normal couple but really hold a lot of personal secrets. Dominick's father tends to drink a lot. Often Dominick and his mother must find him and drag him out of bars. His father has a mistress named Edie, who Dominick meets one night while searching for his father, and Dominick himself begins an affair with her. Dominick ends of loaning her lots of money that belongs to his mother, causing even more problems. Dominick finds out his mother was saving the money for an abortion of her own. She was having an affair, too, with Town Sheriff Roget. Dominick's mother not being able to afford a safe illegal abortion ends of bleeding to death in a motel room trying to terminate the pregnancy herself, with someone else's help. Who helps her, then deserts her is a real surprise. It turns out that Edie, the father's mistress, is pregnant, too, and the baby belongs to Dominick's father. There are so many plot twists in this story it's more than enough to fill two books. As the plot moves along very rapidly with more and more twists, we find Dominick with his new girlfriend, Jeanny, holed up in the same motel room his mother died in, with Edie's baby, who is Dominick's sister. There they are surrounded by the police, in a stand-off, that continues with more plot twists till the book comes to it's powerful conclusion. What a story!
Once in a while you find a new author that's really exciting and a powerful writer. John Searles is just that and more. I've got a strong feeling this will become a movie someday soon. I certainly look forward to reading and reviewing John's next book. Bravo!