Review: Fantastic
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 29, 2013
After ten lonely years, Nick Lombard is finally free to regain the life he'd lost. Only this time, he finds that people have changed and feelings have ripened. The characters and emotions in this novel are vivid, and I found it hard to put the novel down. First there's Nick, who shows up at the funeral of his mother whom he hasn't seen in ten years. An alcoholic and a loose woman, his mother didn't have much of a maternal instinct, and Nick raised his younger brother. John is a fantastic character. Torn by the family he's about to have with Robert, and by his real father Nick, he embodies the resentment any young child would feel over his father's abandonment. Of all the characters, Maude was the most elusive. Although she never appeared in the novel, her memory was woven throughout it. She is a self-indulgent drug addict and alcoholic who has a closet full of clothes and lots of cheap jewelry. Nick's childhood memories are of him taking care of his younger brother, so he is surprised when somebody tells him how "Maude really loved her boys." Nick is determined to do better for his own son. With prison out of the way, he determines to become part of his son's life. This novel flowed very well, and I found it hard to put down. The author is an excellent writer. She knows the difference between jail and prison, two words which are so often used interchangeably.