* Copy courtesy of Bloomsbury *
Buckeye by Patrick Ryan is a family saga set in small town Bonhomie, Ohio about the lives of Cal Jenkins and his eventual wife Becky and Margaret Salt and her eventual husband Felix. Cal is born in 1920 with one leg shorter than the other making him ineligible to serve in World War II, while Felix serves in the Navy on a cargo ship. Becky realises her gift of mediumship during the war and Margaret is still troubled by her upbringing as a foundling in an orphanage.
A novel that examines these four lives and the families they create in detail wouldn't be my usual reading choice but there was something about the blurb and early praise from the likes of Tom Hanks ("I've been yearning for a novel that connects the American generations who dealt with our two Wars - one of Omaha Beach, the other of the la Drang Valley. Buckeye is that book, and it soars") that drew me in and I'm so glad it did.
The author made me care deeply about each of the characters as they went about their lives, bearing witness to their flaws and insecurities, following their struggles and yearning for their inner peace and happiness.
There were plenty of daily references to suburban life in this era and I especially loved the mention of a mailbox bookclub where four older men enjoyed reading and discussing westerns.
"They agreed ahead of time on what book they would read - often a reread - and when there was only the one copy available, they worked out a system wherein each of them would get three days with it, then tape a nickel inside the book's cover and leave it in their mailbox. Skip would then collect the nickel and carry the book on his bicycle over to the next house, where he would leave it in the mailbox and put the flag up." Page 286Brilliant! My favourite character arc was that of Cal's alcoholic father who suffered from PTSD related to his service in WWI. A hoarder living on his own, he had a turbulent relationship with his son which came into focus after a near tragedy.
Ryan includes many touching and amusing moments to offset the struggles of our characters, like Becky asking her father-in-law his thoughts on the book Death on the Nile. He said he hadn't especially enjoyed it:
"But that Poy-Rot is in the right business." Page 336The book spans a period of 60 years and Ryan takes us right through to events in the Vietnam War and in doing so shines a light on the complex effects war has on each generation of characters. Also under the author's microscope is the marriage between Cal and Becky and Margaret and Felix.
At the end of Buckeye, there didn't appear to be a logical conclusion reached with any of the four main characters, rather it felt as though 'this is where the reader will leave the characters.'
"What is it about time that confounds us? We spend it. We save it. We while it away. We waste it. We kill it. We complain about not having enough of it, or about having too much of it on our hands. We regret what we've done with it. We give it away. We want it back. We say 'time and again' when something is bothering us and 'it's time' when something is supposed to end. ...all we should ever want of time is more of it." Page 430Buckeye by Patrick Ryan is a moving historical family saga set in the American midwest about ambition, love, longing, marriage, parenthood, service, sacrifice, loss, grief, forgiveness, guilt and survival.
Highly recommended!
