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Jennifer
Rating:
Review
This novel, I felt, was written extremely authentically. The author has a way of perfectly describing a character without too many unnecessary words, but evoking the exact feeling he wishes to convey. This story is about Jono Riley, a middle aged actor and bartender, who is bound to never succeed in the theater, but loves it anyway. His first love as a boy, Marie D'Agostino, dies, and sets off the story of younger days, and how her death is related to secrets of their friends and their childhood. Jono feels compelled to return to the place of his youth, to uncover secrets about mysterious shootings that had occurred in his youth, as well. The author tells the story of Jono's group of friends in working class East Providence, giving me the sneaking suspicion that McLarty was an East Providence boy himself by making me believe the story so entirely. Whether he was or not, his ease of description and telling the story is admirable. I look forward to reading more of his novels.
Best Line:
"Unspoken vows, important and ironclad, rolled around our hearts and brains until, contained by firelight, we dropped our hands, sure of a continuing center of our lives."
Kim
Rating:
Review
Main character Jono Riley is a 50ish bit actor who's really a bartender. In the first chapter, Jono recalls his childhood crush on a buddy's sister, Marie D'Agostino, because in the second chapter, she's dead. This story jumps around from Jono as a teenager to Jono as an adult, and truth be told, he doesn't change much in either setting. He fills us in on his history and that of his friends, Billy, Bobby and Cubby, none of which is terribly compelling. I was pretty much bored with this book, as none of the characters really stood out, except for Big Tony, but then I'm a sucker for father figures. I understand Mr. McLarty's first book, The Memory of Running, got some good press, so I will check that out. If it disappoints, then I'll assume the author writes for readers other than myself.
Best Line:
"Theater, the printed word, language in the general sense has entered into a decline," he said quietly."
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