My Brother's Passion

In this small gem of a novel, a thoughtful boy on the lip of adolescence struggles to make sense of the evil that resides in his small town. Told with brilliant, lyric push this tale reveals the unconscious rush that childhood is, that nagging dream that still persists because it means something to the heart. At twelve, this boy floats quietly through his world, voyeur to the complexities that both bind and tear his seemingly placid community. He follows his father, a staunch Baptist, when he joins a strike at the town's one plant, follows his mother, an Asian war bride, who wants most it seems to erase herself, tracks the mystery of a young prostitute he hopes can heal his older brother who is adrift after a tour in Viet Nam. This book tells of a rape, a brutal murder, a storm, and a church, while portraying the complex emotional landscape that lies beneath the ordinary headlines printed about anyplace in America. An unflinching witness to a harsher beauty than most admit, it earns the hope found, surprisingly, in its swift, inevitable conclusion.