GOING HOME: Tom Lamont
Take an aging man, Vic Erskine, with a Parkinsonian-type degenerative disease, and two thirty-somethings, one of whom, Vic's son Teo, has fled the suburbs for a slick single life in London, and the other, Ben Mossam, who has stayed in
…more town where he lives luxuriously in a mansion and does nothing because he doesn't need to do anything. Add to this, Lia, former lover of Teo's, and single mother of a toddler, (father unknown) and finally, a very unOrthodox rabbi, and you have the humorous and heartbreaking mix that is GOING HOME.
One weekend, when Teo's visiting his father and friends, he agrees to babysit Lia's toddler, Joel. He does so the next day and while he is out with Joel, Lia commits suicide, apparently leaving Joel in Teo's permanent care, since no plans or arrangements were made.
The novel spins around the three men and the rabbi as they attempt to keep Joel out of foster care. Vic is eager to raise the boy, but his declining health makes this unrealistic. There is no room for a small boy in the life Teo's made for himself in London, and Ben is generous and charming and financially able, but totally unreliable.
This is actually a novel about three boys—one only a few years old and the other two in their thirties. With all the good will in the world, neither of the boy-men comprehend what it means to grow up.
Tom Lamont writes beautifully, with humor, charm and compassion. This situation could easily have lent itself to slapstick or sentimentality, but Lamont avoids both. The characters, including little Joel, are three-dimensional and complicated, and tagging along with them on their bumpy road is a pleasure.
I would definitely recommend this book. (less)
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