Review: Gutsy and redemptive
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 4, 2012
There are some stories that are too painful not to be told. Jeff Napolitano's Cadillac River tells us one of those stories.  It pulls no punches. It  focuses on a sensitive topic, child abuse, one that bears witnessing in our culture. The novel has a physical immediacy that hooks me from the opening sentence. I feel the cold and smell the grit of life in an underworld we don't like to think about, much less enter:  on the streets,  or in a house that turns out to belong to the Mafia. I admire the writer's skill with POV nuances. The perspective shifts from key character to key character, but he makes sure we stay with him.  A girl and a boy form a lasting friendship in a terrible environment. Their love transcends  it. Their gang of four journeys toward redemption, an epiphanic moment in a river that cleanses them and changes everything. A gripping, suspenseful work of social justice has been written by Mr. Napolitano.