Going Home

Going Home is a novel by Tom Lamont about a group of friends who end up caring for 2 year old Joel when his mother goes missing. All the characters are very believable.
Tao Erskine, on a visit to his dad outside of London, meets up with Lia, the only girl in his group of friends; he volunteers to babysit for her son Joel the following day and ends up being a guardian for him.
Tao is a reliable and responsible 30 year old unmarried man with a 70 year old father, Vic, who still tries to be independent. Vic insists on cooking a chicken dinner for Joel and Tao but when he realizes he has to make gravy, he fails and sends Tao to buy some. In addition, in his excitement to tell the social workers that he wants to be the sole caretaker of Joel tells them that his son drove under the influence of drugs and so possibly ruins Tao's chance of continuing to care for Joel.

Tao was a responsible person unlike his friend Ben Mossom who is invited to dinner and does not show up. Also when the two friends are putting together a trampoline, Tao reads the instructions carefully and Ben just puts it together haphazardly. Ben acts on impulse as when he blurts out to Joel the truth about his mom.

Ben likes to do things for people but also wants to be thanked or recognized .He opens his house to friends even when he is not there. Ben tells Tao that he will get someone to babysit if Tao comes to a football game with him. On the way to the game Ben tries to convince Tao to take some pills he has to make him high. Tao, being the responsible person he is, refuses until Ben starts talking about Lia and upsets him. Ben went with her even though he was aware that Tao liked her. He had a brief affair with her and swore his friends to keep this secret.
The person Ben asks to sit is Sbyl, the rabbi of the synagogue that Ben attends. Sybl had discussions with Lia and tried to advise her. Lia was selfish, and clever. Sybl wanted to make innovations at the synagogue. But the people who attended were traditional .Ben tells Sybl about a letter that came to his house in which her contract was not renewed because of this.

Joel is a typical 2year old with tantrums and lots of energy that energizes the people he is with. He can also be easily persuaded. When he is on the way to the zoo and stuck in traffic, he is convinced by Ben that eating burgers is a better idea instead.
I would recommend this book if you want a fast read and do not really want to delve deeply into characters.