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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