Don't Forget Me, Bro

Stunned by the death of his mentally ill brother, forty-two-year-old Mark Barr returns to his hometown in West Virginia for his brother’s funeral only to find out that his estranged family has no such plans.  Once back home, he discovers that his family’s memory, as well as his own, of his brother as a broken, hopeless schizophrenic is belied by mounting evidence that Steve Barr had lived a much fuller and more complicated life.

Armed with this new knowledge, Mark tears off on a mission to honor his brother’s memory with justice and compassion.  As he fights to change the hearts of his father, mother, and middle brother, all of whom are fractured by anger, blame, and dysfunction, his own stability is rocked apart.  

In tough, spare, beautiful language that pulls the reader into the peeling, gothic world of southern West Virginia, Don’t Forget Me, Bro shows us that at the heart of every human existence is the ultimate fear of being forgotten, of simply being gone.

*May Contain Spoilers*

Mark searches for a way to honor a brother he never respected, a brother he feared, in John Michael Cummings novel, Don't Forget Me, Bro. With eloquent prose and remarkable sentence crafting, Cummings reaches the soul and shares it in pieces so that even though the whole may be a chaotic beautiful mess, it's still beautiful.

Mark is the main character of this journey back home who struggles with family, love, and interpersonal connection. Mark is a complicated person. (Aren't we all?) He tends to want things that he can't have and that will make him real to readers. Mark wants a home different from Virginia, a brain that doesn't struggle with happiness, a past that doesn't haunt him, and he definitely wants to be nothing like his father. Though, I think most importantly, he wants to be forgiven by his deceased brother. These deep emotional desires and hopes will connect him to readers. The main story line will introduce sympathy for Mark and lay a reader/character foundation, but the in-depth look into Mark's psyche will be what builds upon that foundation. Because of the way the book is written, Mark cannot hide from the reader. And while he's learning new things about his family, readers witness how he reacts, how he thinks, how he grows (or doesn't) with the information. This will only make the connection with Mark stronger as the book goes on, even though he isn't the nicest, sweetest, most loving, or most sane character. He has a lot of faults, a lot of regrets, but that doesn't make him bad. Readers will see that. 

The plot follows Mark from New York to Virginia the early morning that Steve died. Mark believes there will be a funeral but is surprised when his father shares his decision to cremate. While trying to stop him, Mark learns surprising things that his brother did while he was still alive. The story line reminds me of those 3-D pictures that you held really close to your nose while struggling not to cross your eyes, then slowly you moved your head away and let your eyes focus on their own. Magically, a picture popped out of the page that was a crazy mess of colors just a moment before. That is this book. It's a mess of colors, feelings, going off the deep end. Of threats, hopes, dreams, regrets. And, magically, a picture appears at the end bringing everything into focus. 

Rating: 4.5/5 Cups

A Tortured Heart

Why do we give those who hurt us the upper hand by changing who we are after our pride, and heart, is injured?

Hope Tarr explores this query in Vanquished by creating a character who has changed her self after suffering a broken heart. Caledonia Rivers is presently a woman obsessed with politics and a fighter for the women's suffrage movement. She dons spectacles that she doesn't need and covers her figure with layers of clothing to hide her true womanly figure. All of this because one man and one unpleasant comment.

I feel like this is a commonality between the reader and Caledonia. We've all been hurt by people in our lives who don't agree with who we are and dislike us for what we're not. But why must we take that to heart and change because of it? At the time, the idea that there are people out there who will always accept us for who we are is so far out of reach that it is almost unfathomable. Yet, it's true. Those people do exist. Can we not dwell on that simple truth instead of the internal echoing of harsh words meant to singe the threads of our souls?

Once again, a past full of pain creates a tortured heart.

Acceptance

Pam Hillman kept me up until 2:25 this morning reading her first novel, Stealing Jake. It was a delightful book that filled me with worry that the main characters wouldn't survive. And when a main character deserves a happy ending, you really want them to have it.

In this novel, Hillman made it a point to form a connection between the reader and each of the main characters that appeared in the web of plot lines. Livy, a pick-pocket from Chicago, ran from her past to the small town of Chestnut, Illinois. She kept her past a secret from everyone almost everyone around her, until it comes back to stake its claim and ruin her new life as a Orphanage director. We all have a past, and whether we choose to run from it or not, there are often more than a few things we're not proud of. This past brings Livy to life for the readers, allowing them to compare their past to hers.

Jake, a sheriff deputy, is doing all he can for his family. Ever since a mining accident killed his father, it's up to him to take care of the family and see to it that they survive. Every family has a member like this - the one that is responsible, or who makes it their responsibility, to ensure the family stays together. Whether or not the reader has that role in their own family, the connection tugs at more than one heart string. The reader finds him/her self struggling to make sure that Jake makes the right decisions for his family.

Luke, a little boy caught in Chicago and sold to the highest bidder to work in a sewing factory, escapes his fate but lives on the streets of Chestnut so he can try to save his brother, Mark, from the evils of the factory life. He's so scared to trust anyone that it's a struggle to find help in the city of Chestnut. All he has to do is ask, and he will have a warm bed and delicious meal. His past experience with trusting people ensures that he can't take this chance if he wants to save Mark. Trust is a huge part of any person's life, without trust any kind of relationship is doomed to fail. The reader can connect to Luke because of their own experiences with trusting someone who turns out to be less than they seemed.

This novel has many avenues in which the reader can draw comparisons into their own lives. It leaves them questioning if, in the character's shoes, they would make the same decisions? Do we dare accept our past and move into the future, knowing that their could be judgement? Do we gamble with the responsibility we hold in our family life? And do we learn to be open and trust those around us? Further so, if we do, then how?


Stealing Jake on Amazon