She tells the story of Napoleon Haskell's daughter (we never learn her name) and her efforts to piece together an understanding of her father and what look like his failures from her own childhood memories, her experience with him in her own adulthood, and his memories of the past, foggy and fading as he succumbs to a cancer and alcohol induced dementia.
Much of the story takes place around the home of a family friend, Henry, father of one of Napoleon's Vietnam buddies who was killed in the war. Henry lives in a town on the shores of a man-made lake that has made a watery grave of his childhood hometown and family home. That lake and what's been lost beneath it is a metaphor for all that's buried in the lives of the main characters as they try to understand one another.
Little about the story is happy. Mostly, it's riddled with angst. But the writing is starkly beautiful. And the moral is that sometimes the truth is simply unknowable.
I can't give it an unqualified recommendation. It's not an easy, quick or particularly entertaining read. But if you have a literary bent and if, like me, you love a poet's first novel (Fugitive Pieces is my favorite), you might want to give The Sentimentalists a try.
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Number 27 in my 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge. Last one was Left Neglected.
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Intriguing. You find the most interesting books, Kim! Thanks for the review. I have really gotten behind in my reading. Must. not. quit. :)
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