Atticus Lish

This slice-of-life seems autobiographical, so persuasive that this Boston-area family existed, and still exists, in many other times and places. But here, it's Quincy, MA, in the early 2000s, when it was not the home of many Asian immigrants, but a white working class first ring Boston suburb, where Gloria Goltz lands, a single mom with her young son Corey, after leading the drifting hippie life in Cambridge and environs. She falls in love with Leonard, who has some vague association with MIT and talks a good physics game. He is deliberately detached, often times cruel, and Gloria raises Corey on her own, until she develops ALS when Corey is in high school. Her descent into paralysis and Corey's confusion about his goals (apply to MIT? become a MMA fighter? work construction? enlist?) narrows into caring for Gloria. Leonard reappears, with disastrous results, and Gloria's ex-lover Joan joins them for a year as a caring angel. But others who are pulled into the Goltz orbit are destroyed. As told mostly by Corey, this is an American tragedy with no one blameless, and no one specific event or person to blame, except for cruel fate. It’s absorbing and memorable.… (mere)

I only finished this book because I felt I needed to read it in its entirety to write a review. It seemed like an editor’s red pen could have been used more. Lots of violence, too much for me, is one of the reasons it isn’t a book I can recommend to readers who follow me. The strength of the book is in the complex characters. I empathized with Corey. He, as a boy and young man trying to navigate life without much adult supervision, was continually challenged to make choices that would guide his life.… (mere)