This is the third of Dave Seaburn’s books that I’ve reviewed and he is an author to who I am keen to return again and again. His books are well-written with a clear thread and purpose and I lose myself in them totally, with no jarring jerks in continuity or other, like odd plot turns or characters I can’t grasp, so I’m never taken out of my involved reading. For me, this is the most crucial sign of a good read: to become immersed and invested in what you are reading.
Seaburn’s book is about a family and their dynamics and more precisely, the relationships within the family that connect each individual: whether marriage, as siblings or most crucially, as mother and daughter.
Laney is married to Franklin and the book begins on an anniversary where they are out celebrating, only it doesn’t go quite as Franklin had planned. Laney has an epiphany and decides to break away from her marriage to find her estranged daughter, Roz, who lives in a small town in Oklahoma and with whom she has not had contact for years. Roz has a daughter too, Maggie who is in a dead-end job but is not really certain about where she’s headed. Her relationship with her mum is fractious and there are parallels between Laney and Roz, and Roz and Maggie which adds to a sense of history repeating itself.
As Laney goes off to find their daughter, Franklin is left behind, wondering what on Earth happened. Seaburn shows a man bewildered and hopeful, who hangs on to the life that he knew, flummoxed as to why after 40 years, his wife has suddenly decided to leave him when he still loves her. We discover however that Franklin may not have been the attentive husband he supposed himself to be.
Franklin is supported by his sister, Gretchen, a widow and the narrative shifts between following Laney, Roz and Maggie in Oklahoma, and Franklin and Gretchen in Rochester. Seaburn’s novel is contemporary and so, issues that have governed people’s behaviours in more recent times like Covid, as well as controversial concerns that resurface to be hotly debated, like American gun control and abortion, are all central to his story, some of his characters being directly affected by these.
The book evolves well and reaches a satisfying conclusion and does so with Seaburn’s solid storytelling guiding us there.
Scuffed Granny 