Debut novelist/TV & Film Producer Noah Hawley
Among the perks of working at Lemuria is the opportunity to read advanced reading copies (or in the trade jargon ARCs) of an upcoming book. Into my hands fell The Good Father by Noah Hawley just out last week. Now, this is not your feel good book about parenting and unconditional love.
Imagine an ordinary evening home with your family when you hear a fast-breaking story on the television news about a senator, probably the next presidential candidate, who has been shot in Los Angeles. Oh dreadful. But then you hear your eldest son’s name as the accused shooter.
Your life is changed forever. Nothing will ever be the same again. The repercussions are unfathomable.
So it is with Dr. Paul Allen, chief of rheumatology at Columbia Presbyterian. Denial, fear, grief overtake him. After visiting the boy in prison and finding him uncommunicative, not even to claim his guilt or innocence, Dr. Allen is driven to find the truth.
Daniel Allen, 19, drops out of Vassar and takes to the road. He finds a job with loving, caring people in Iowa where he works for a few months, learns a lot about guns then wanderlust pushes him onward. He lands in Texas and works for the senator who he is later accused of shooting. He seems unable to last more than four months in any one place. Helena, Portland, San Francisco, Sacramento and finally Los Angeles.
The novel is written from two perspectives-the father and the son. The father conducts an investigation into himself and into the circumstances as he does in his practice-look beyond the obvious, gather all the information possible.
Daniel eventually changes his name to Carter Allen Cash. He is spending an inordinate amount of time alone. He is searching, too. He realizes what he must do.
All parents wonder when a crisis occurs, if they had done this or that differently would the outcome be the same. A parent’s love for a child is like no other. When do you let go?
Comments are closed.