Review: The rebuilding and bettering of lives
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 11, 2014
Turner’s Point is a big book with a lot of characters, plot lines, and heart.  If you are a fan of novels like Empire Falls by Richard Russo, you will fall right into the rhythms of this novel.  Beginning with a wild road trip undertaken by a mother seeking her son after the spectacular destruction of her marriage through major sexual indiscretion, the novel moves in and out of before and after, and traces what happens to the family of three (Eileen, her son Kyle, and her ex-husband) because of the divorce. Instead of being a novel of defeat and pain, it’s a funny, very human novel about people and their foibles, and how it’s harder to escape our interconnectedness than one might think.As the novel unfolds, mother and son rebuild their lives by buying a business, and firming up their identities. Kyle has to figure out his sexual orientation, and Eileen has to sort out her own wants and needs; meanwhile, Kyle’s dad is trying to establish a new law firm in a new town (with his inappropriate new wife), and even his law partner gets a plot line!In a really interesting fashion, although this is a book about small town Americans, the novel ranges all over the place, from the mid-west to San Diego, and even New York, and the characters lives end up going in directions they never even expected, yet makes sense within the logic of the novel.  It’s a big, roomy book, by an author with a real grasp of language and an ear for dialogue, and the perfect read for the upcoming summer.