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My review sent to WW Norton:
My
Darling Boy by John Dufresne
John
Dufresne’s latest novel tells a story of love and loss, a father trying to find
and rehabilitate his opioid-addicted son when the son does not want to be found
or rehabilitated. Olney, the father, has been straight his whole life, never
addicted or incarcerated or homeless. His son Cully becomes addicted to pain
medications young and soon becomes all those things and begins lying to his
parents and stealing from their home to support his habit. He morphs into a
stranger his parents can’t understand or reach out to in their desperation to
bring back the darling boy they raised. Reminiscent of American Pastoral
by Phillip Roth, My Darling Boy deals with the terrible estrangement
that shocks so many families around the world: the good life sometimes is not
good enough. Junky love is not the same as family love, Olney learns the hard
way. His wife leaves him, not able to handle the stress of Cully’s
metamorphosis into a strange young man without feelings for those who care the
most for his well-being. He finds his son and loses him time after time. Olney’s
search leads him to extraordinary and decent people pushed to the edge of our white
bread world, each with their own story of loss and survival.
Told
through Olney’s point of view, we learn through the fascinating characters he
encounters that love is indeed hard to find and hard to keep for most
good-hearted people. The happy past Olney remembers with Cully is denied by the
young man as an illusion. The addicted Cully can remember his supply chain but
not his own childhood. Olney’s heartbreak is the reader’s heartbreak. Having
love turned away is an undercurrent in the lives of every single character in
the story, just as it is in real life. That is what makes Olney’s hope and
courage stand out to the reader: there is hope. There is love. There is the
chance of a better future despite all the despair, but only if he continues his
quest and does not give up. Olney is a hero for our times.
Neil
Crabtree
Author
of Smuggler’s Return
