****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Parents raise children and then their children grow up and move out and move on. Many leave the cities or towns where they were raised but some stay put. No matter where one goes, however, they take their roots with them. In this wonderfully intelligent book by Jean Thompson, she follows an American family from Iowa from the years 1973 until 2003, couched between the war in Vietnam and the one in the middle east.The novel is about four children in a family with Norwegian roots and their cousin, all of whom leave home in different ways, physically and emotionally. The protagonist of this story, if there is one, would be Ryan. He is the 'smart' son, the one bound for college and bigger things. He leaves home to attend Northwestern University to study political science, quickly learning that academia is not the idealistic place he had thought it would be. He becomes an Information Technology specialist and makes a lot of money opening his own company. We watch him while he dates, marries, has children, and then comes full circle - returning home. At one point, he and his wife, who are living in Chicago, are talking and he says, "sometimes I think, we blew it, we were both so anxious to get away and not be one bit like our parents and we had to, it was so smothering. But back home, I can look up and down just about any street and there's people I'm either related to or I've known them all my life and my parents have known them and my grandparents knew their grandparents and there's a comfort in that. I miss it. That's all I'm saying. Here, it's like we're not from anywhere." Ryan feels like he's in "The Great State of Alienation. It stretched from sea to shining sea. Everybody in America is one of two things, either in or out."Anita is the 'beauty queen' of the family. She has managed to go through high school on her looks and has no real ambitions except to marry and have children. She is the oldest of the four. She ends up marrying a banker who is an alcoholic and they stay in the same small town where she was raised. We observe Anita become aware of what alcoholism is and as she becomes involved in Al-Anon, trying to overcome her co-dependence. She develops insight into alcoholism. Why did Jeff drink? "Because it's Tuesday. Because he couldn't find his blue socks. It's alcohol, it don't need a reason..." She also doesn't understand her oldest child, Matt, who is a musician. He has quit college and is traveling around the country with his band. "He was going wherever it was that a guy with a guitar went these days." "Maybe some people just weren't born to stick around. They already had a ticket on that rocket to the Final Frontier."Chip is the family cousin who has just returned from Vietnam. There are thoughts that he was traumatized there or exposed to Agent Orange. He has trouble concentrating, roams around the continent, and uses a lot of weed and alcohol. Before going to Vietnam, he was considered a dork and never fit in. As he grows older, he never learns the nuances of being social but he learns to accept and rely on his family to stay with him. For him, 'Home's the place where, when you show up, they have to take you in."Then there is Torrie, a wonderfully unique and free-spirited young woman who has a tragic accident in high school that forever changes the route that her life takes. She remains home with her parents for most of her younger adult years until she can prove she is able to master the world on her own.Blake, the youngest son, has no wild dreams. He wants to be in construction and eventually opens his own contracting business in the same town he grew up in. He wonders sometimes why he didn't have bigger dreams but "wasn't it true that he'd settled into the life he'd wanted. He guessed he was just one of those old dogs who was happiest at home." He wonders about his son who signed up to fight overseas.We watch the two generations of parents struggle with trying to encourage their childrens' individuation and the difficulties they face in letting them go. Jean Thompson beautifully explores the landscape of home, family and community. Each chapter is written from the perspective of a different character. if you liked Olive Kitteridge or The Imperfectionists: A Novel (Random House Reader's Circle), this is a book you will likely savor. It is very, very good.
