The Constellations
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
It's 1974 in DeKalb County, Illinois and the planets have failed to align for Roy Conlon. Widowed and broke, his eight-year-old son Eric is suddenly a mystery to him. The boy has become aware of a sky awhirl with stars and of the universe outside his small-Midwestern town. And as powerful forces pull Eric away, Roy's efforts to hold onto his son are threatened by weakness, guilt, and his participation in a foolish crime.
Enter The Constellations, a novel of the diverging paths of a father and his son, and how each copes with the loss of the woman whose love and guidance held them together. Roy and Eric's parallel journeys take them through a landscape populated by long shot players and kitchen sink philosophers, by ruthless thieves and fierce protectors. A compelling novel of small town America in the shadow of Vietnam and Watergate, Cunningham's spare prose and deftly drawn heroes complete a portrait of our country reminiscent of Mark Richard and Jim Shepard. Scarred, divided, and damaged, his characters represent all of our false promises and failed dreams.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Since the death of his wife, Roy Conlon has struggled not only to survive financially in post-Watergate rural Illinois but also to bond with his children, eight-year-old Eric, who by rural Dekalb County standards is special for his determined appreciation of astronomy, and his younger sister, Cammy, taking special education classes because of problems during her birth. Despite loving aid from Roy's doting aunts and uncles, trouble scratches Roy's desperate itch when his sketchy construction buddy, Carl Dombey, offers to bring him in on his plan to steal museum-quality coins. Between attempts at connecting with his growing kids and visits to the bed of a married woman whose insights like "denying what you are takes a lot of energy away from living" don't assuage the guilt, Roy's involvement with the coins turns treacherous when his son discovers the stolen stash, forcing a tough moral decision. In this debut novel, Cunningham writes with confidence, employing a spare, straightforward style that conveys the story with fluid minimalism. The author's talent for quiet, meditative character studies is on full display in this slim slice of smalltown life.
