Under the Rainbow
A Novel
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Donald—a freelance photographer—has lost his artistic eye, his knack for observation, his ability to find beauty and truth in the captured moment. Maybe it’s because his editors are all half his age and insist that beauty can be categorized by brand name, and that truth is defined by their advertisers. His son, Travis, is so eager for a transcendental experience that he repeatedly tries to kill himself. This wry and curiously uplifting story of one man’s struggle to maintain his faith in art, in humanity, and in the clumsy alchemy of love sparkles with wit and originality.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This bittersweet tale follows a man through a midlife crisis as he comes to terms with failure and mortality. Donald is still in the process of recovering from his close friend's death four years earlier when he discovers that another buddy is dying of prostate cancer. Meanwhile, Donald's teenage son Travis makes numerous blissfully zealous suicide attempts. Though it is a bit strange that Travis is so happy and that his happiness should translate into a desire for death, nevertheless, this darkly humorous--and it is humorous--counterpoint allows Silvis ( An Occasional Hell ) to shift gears just when the story threatens to become morose, as he does with Donald's verbal sparring with his born-again mother-in-law. Death and happiness may be its dominant themes, but this slim novel manages to successfully touch upon quite a few subjects. There is, for example, a double twist in gender roles: Jessica, Donald's wife, is the true breadwinner of the family and Donald's mistress, Leeanne, is the aggressor he never could be. Though comic in tone, the novel does not lightly treat the complexities of love and fidelity in marriage. Silvis's narration is gentle, and whether employing magic realism or humor (macabre or otherwise) there is an underlying probity to this story.
