First published 1990
Joe Allston calls himself cantankerous, and he has good reason. The retired literary agent spends his days in the California woods with his wife Ruth, waiting for death and calling it killing time. His parents are gone. His only son is dead. His career involved peddling other people's talents rather than developing his own. Then a postcard arrives from someone he hasn't heard from in years. The unexpected message sends Joe back to journals he wrote during a trip to his mother's birthplace, where he once searched for connections to his family history. Reading his own words brings back memories he thought he had buried. Some make him cringe. Others break his heart. All of them force Joe to reckon with a question that has shadowed his entire life. Has he really been just a spectator, watching from the sidelines while others lived fully? The journals hold answers Joe isn't sure he wants to face.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, adult-fiction, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, introspective, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: introspective-narrator, midlife-crisis, second-chance
Setting: California, Mother's Birthplace
Period: 20th Century
214 pages · Paperback · Penguin