Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice-for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker.
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Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. When the family finally learns the truth, the impact is minimal.įirst-novelist Edwards (stories: The Secrets of a Fire King, 1997) excels at celebrating a quiet wholesomeness but stumbles over her storyline.Īre we not men? We are-well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z (2006).Ī zombie apocalypse is one thing. It’s a bold scene, rekindling the excitement of the start yet remaining a solitary flash in a humdrum progression. Visiting his childhood home, he is surprised by a squatter, a pregnant runaway of 16 who ties him up-and his story tumbles out. Unfortunately, after its fast and sure-footed start, the story sags: Edwards insists heavy-handedly on the consequences of David’s lie but fails to deliver any true catharsis, and when David does confess, it’s not to Norah. In Pittsburgh, meanwhile, Caroline lands on her feet, securing a good job and a good man, and raising Phoebe with a fierce devotion. Neither they nor son Paul can be warmed by life together, each keeping busy with pet projects.
In Lexington, the loss of the supposedly dead baby corrodes David and Norah’s marriage. Over the next 25 years, parallel stories unfold. Secretly in love with David, Caroline, who is shocked by his subterfuge and shocked again by the grim shelter, decides to move away and raise Phoebe on her own. Hoping to spare her the pain he underwent with his sister, David tells Norah that the girl is stillborn and instructs his nurse, Caroline, to deliver the infant to an institution.
David delivers his and Norah’s own twins-a boy (Paul) who’s fine, and a girl (Phoebe) who is damaged with Down’s syndrome. The year is 1964, and it’s love at first sight. He’s 33 when he meets Norah Asher in a department store. Vowing to do good, David left home to become an orthopedic surgeon in Lexington, Ky. His family was dirt poor and his sister June, always sickly, died of a heart defect at 12. One well-intentioned lie causes deep fissures in a family.ĭavid Henry had a hard childhood in West Virginia.
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