The Book: Tom Layward lives in Westchester, New York with his wife Amy. His life may look outwardly good but Tom is dealing with some major issues. He has health problems that his doctor has diagnosed as Long Covid. He has been put on leave from his job as a law professor but he hasn't told his family. An old friend is pressuring him to get involved in a class action case for race discrimination against white people. But mainly he is dealing with a big decision about his marriage. Twelve years ago Amy had an affair and Tom decided that he would leave Amy as soon as their youngest child left for college. Now it is time to drive his daughter to school in Pennsylvania but after dropping her off Tom decides to keep going rather than returning home. He visits his brother in Indiana, an old friend in Denver, an old girlfriend in Las Vegas and his son in Los Angeles. Along the way he thinks about the rest of his life, both what came before and what will come next. This novel was a finalist for the 2025 Booker Prize.
The Author: Ben Markovits
Genre: Literary Fiction
Length: 256 pages using ipad mini as e-reader
One good thing: This is a very accessible novel, written in the first person almost as if Tom is having a conversation with the reader. This made me want to "keep the conversation going" and keep reading.
One not-so-great thing: The physical structure of the novel may be off-putting for some readers. The dialog does not use quotation marks, which I know annoys some people more than me. There are, also, only three very long chapters so there aren't many natural stopping points.
Nancy Pearl's "Four Doorways":
Story: This is not what I would call a plot-driven novel. If you are looking for a typical "page turner" with a high action plot, this is not the novel for you. While there is a plot, most of the action takes place in Tom's head.
Characters: I would call this a one-character driven novel. The main character is, of course, Tom and we are in his head for the whole novel. Even though the novel is not plot-driven, I found it hard to put down. I felt a little bereft when the novel ended and I wanted to know more about what happened to Tom after we leave him. We see the other characters through Tom's eyes and we seem to discover things about them as Tom has realizations about them.
Setting: Although Tom is driving cross country this isn't a travelog. There are descriptions of places but "place" isn't really a big part of the story.Writing: Well written but written in every-day language. No sentence made me want to re-read it because it was so beautiful. On the other hand, Markovitz knew how to fill in back story without it seeming like exposition and there were a couple of moments of foreshadowing that were so subtle that I had to read them twice.
