Review of Father of the Rain by Lily King

I picked up Father of the Rain because I had read a number of glowing reviews. But I was disappointed in Lily King's latest novel.

Father of the Rain follows the life of Daley, who we first meet as a young girl in the 1970s. She and her family live in fictional Ashling, Massachusetts, a ritzy town. Her parents-- a do-gooder mother and an alcoholic, WASP-y father-- are at odds and end up divorcing. Daley moves in with her mother and sees her father on weekends. I thought this portion of the book, which covered her childhood, was the best part of the book and was the reason I kept reading. Her father is a raging drunk, who is mean and inappropriate towards his children. It's hard to see any redeeming quality in him, though Daley tries. She has a fierce attachment to this man, though he is utterly unlikeable.

The second portion of the book details Daley's life when she's in her late 20s, finishing up graduate school and deciding on her next steps. After hearing that her father's second wife has walked out on him, she ups and leaves her home in Michigan and stays with her father-- this derails her plan to start teaching at Berkeley and to move in with the love of her life, Jonathan. Daley tries and tries to make her father better, driving him to AA meetings, teaching him to cook. She is doing everything she can to rescue her father from himself while she re-lives much of her youth in Ashling, connecting with childhood friends.

I won't reveal how the novel ends, but I will reiterate that I was disappointed in this novel. There were a lot of interesting threads in this book, but I found that how they were handled was somewhat cliched. For example, I wasn't surprised when Daley ends up having a black boyfriend-- her father is racist and anti-Semitic and hates Democrats.

All in all, this book was slightly above average, but I wouldn't recommend it. Just One Pink gives Father of the Rain a 7.

Review of More of This World or Maybe Another by Barb Johnson

Barb Johnson's first collection of linked short stories, More of This World or Maybe Another, is good. Very good. In the nine stories, we meet several friends who live in New Orleans. How their lives meet and diverge is a large part of the collection. We see many of them in childhood or adolescence and then follow them over the course of a number of years. What these stories all have in common is a sense of sadness, desperation, and loneliness.

In the title story, we meet Delia, who figures prominently throughout the book. She is in high school, hanging out at a dance, thinking about her future, and feeling the first stirrings of attraction that she will deal with later on in the book. In "Killer Heart," we meet Dooley, Delia's younger brother, and follow him through a turbulent time in his marriage. In "Titty Baby," we meet Pudge, a friend of Delia's, who grapples with being teased for being heavy and who deals with a rough family situation.

I was blown away by this collection. It's well written, touching, and very real. Johnson worked as a carpenter for 20 years before going back to school to get her MFA. I hope she keeps writing.

Just One Pink gives More of This World or Maybe Another a 9.