Description:
Within the confines of a Midwestern college town, Century's Son poignantly explores all that remains unsaid between family members still mourning the suicide of a teenage son. Robert Boswell's novel involves Zhenya Kamenev, a political science professor soured by the tragedy; her union-activist-turned-garbage-collector husband, Morgan, and his thug partner in trouble with the law; her daughter, who has never disclosed who fathered the son she had while a teenager; and Zhenya's father, Peter, who claims to be a century old and is a minor cultural figure since he was once armed and alone with Joseph Stalin, yet chose not to shoot. Boswell's prose is straightforward and unadorned (which turns out to be a good thing). After a slightly flat beginning, the story is asserted and the novel builds steam. The characters are fallible, and their normalcy spirits this collection of personalities to express a range of emotions with authority. Take, for instance, what the family dog knew: She had not forgotten Philip. Still she would catch a whiff of him or the things that smelled of him, and she would begin to pace the halls to find him. Anymore, after a few moments, she would stop herself. For a long time she had not known to stop herself, but she knew how to learn, as well as how to grieve. Century's Son is a moving portrait of a family coping and in crisis, still, after so many years. --Michael Ferch
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