At some point in Lions, the residents of the town refer to it as a "living ghost town" and the description is hauntingly perfect. In fact, lots of things about this book are hauntingly perfect.
When a mysterious stranger and his dog walk into town, they have the fortune of meeting probably the kindest, most unassuming, three people to ever walk the dusty roads of Colorado. Georgiana and John Walker, and their son, Gordon, feed, clothe and give money to the man so that he can make it through another day or two. Unfortunately, the man takes the money and charity (not the same thing) and goes to the local watering hole where he meets other citizens of the town less likely to be friendly to a stranger. Small towns, small minds kind of thing. A fight ensues and the man ends up in the local jail for the night and his dog... well, a dog on its own in a strange town and dark roads...
And after the encounter, the town, which was already teetering on the brink of extinction, gets tipped over the edge into a downward spiral. And just as Gordon Walker's life is about to change and he's about to go off to college with his girlfriend Leigh, his father dies and Gordon enters a spiral of his own.
It's a jarring time in someone's life to lose a parent (I know only from watching others go through it - I'm blessed to still have both of mine). And Gordon seems to suffer more than most. On top of the normal grief is a way of life and a town that John Walker was not prepared to leave. And his son is tied to that way of life in a way that others may be free. John would take days at a time away from his welding work to travel north to where the Colorado roads become gravel and unpaved. What he did up there was a town mystery and source of gossip. And, it's a question that's never really answered in the book which adds to the entire feeling the book evokes.
It's so rare that a place serves as an extra character in a book, but Lions is certainly a main character here. It's really well done. I was uncomfortable with Gordon and his quietness as I think I was meant to be.
4/5 Stars.
I'm actually pretty torn on how to review this book. On the one hand, Sue Miller stories are a master class in character examination. On the other, the book was a bit slow and plodding and ultimately a little boring. The Arsonist follows the life of Frankie Rowley, who returns to her parents retirement home, a place she spent summer vacations as a child, in Pomeroy, NH (again, I'm sorry if these spellings are incorrect, I listened to the audio version of this book). Frankie is coming off another stint as an aid worker in Kenya and she's feeling a little lost, a little forlorn at what seems like the repetitive love and life cycles of "temporizing" in Africa.She arrives in Pomeroy to find her father mentally deteriorating due to Alzheimer's or perhaps Lewy Body disease. Her mother, Sylvia, is dealing with her own feelings of unfulfillment as she contemplates a retirement life taking care of a man who she never quite loved enough. There's a lot of deep character stuff going on in this book. Whether we can shake who we are, find fulfillment, that kind of thing. Typical stuff that Sue Miller does better than basically any other author I've ever read. In the background, fires are being set at the houses of Pomeroy's summer residents. The fires begin to fuel fear and mistrust in the town. This is all covered in the local paper by Bud Jacobs, a man who left Washington DC to escape the big city stories and who's aim was to settle into small town life in Pomeroy. Bud eventually falls for Frankie and their romance is complicated by her being unsure about what she wants to do with the rest of her life. The arson does little more than set a backdrop to the characters lives, and to focus the book in time by giving events to move the story forward. In all, Sue Miller does such a great job delving into the motivations and lives of Frankie, Bud and Sylvia that you end the book really understanding who they are and why they do the things they do. But there is also a faint unfulfilled longing for change or progress to be made by the characters that really sets in motion the ultimate lesson that people don't change, they make decisions based on their personalities and backgrounds, and sometimes they make good decisions, sometimes bad, but they are fundamentally who they are. And what they do with their lives is entirely up to them. While the ending doesn't feel fully satisfying, it does feel overwhelmingly real. And that is what I have come to expect from Sue Miller (you can read my review of another Sue Miller book here). So in that respect, she didn't disappoint.
4/5 Stars.
