Buckeye

by Patrick Ryan

39/60 | Started 08.13.26 • Finished 08.28.26

This hasn't been an easy review to write. I'm torn about this book. There's so much to learn from it when it comes to keeping secrets and being "true to oneself." The characters are vivid and their relationships are meaty. The book is quite well-written. The novel is essentially about two families in the fictional town of Bonhomie, Ohio, and how their lives end up intertwined in ways they never expected. Trigger warnings abound: rape, infidelity, and abandonment. I didn't really like the angle of the closeted husband, but I can see how Felix having this secretive life played into the story. The discussion at book club was lively and opinionated, with most of us having zero sympathy for Margaret, several having sympathy for Felix's situation, and all of us having a sense of pity and compassion for Tom. I think we all felt like Tom ended up bearing the brunt of the consequences of everyone's else's actions, along with the fallout from all the wars in the timeline - from WWI to the Vietnam War. However, the book seems lacking in that there wasn't really an arc of redemption of any kind. There may have been a glimmer of hope in Tom's life, but it's really left open-ended and so we readers are left with nothing to do but speculate. I know one book club member had a truly visceral reaction, whispering to me with gusto that there was no God, no Jesus, no redemption in it at all. "I hated it." While I get where she's coming from, I am a sucker for well-written sweeping family dramas. 4 stars.