by Dawn Powell
First published 1998
Jonathan Jaimison arrives in New York from Silver City, Ohio with a mission that would scandalize most sons. He wants to replace his disappointingly ordinary father with someone more exciting. Armed with his mother's old diaries, Jonathan prowls the bars and cafes of Greenwich Village, hunting for the writer or painter who might have fathered him during a long-ago romantic encounter. The search becomes a tour through bohemian New York as Jonathan meets artists, writers, and various colorful characters who could plausibly be his real parent. Meanwhile, he creates plenty of romantic complications of his own. Jonathan's quest forces him to dig deeper into his mother's past than he expected. By the novel's end, he discovers not just the truth about his father, but surprising revelations about his mother as well. Most importantly, he learns who he really is beneath his charming but morally flexible exterior.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, quest
Setting: Greenwich Village, New York, Ohio, Silver City
Period: 20th-century
264 pages · Paperback · Zoland Books