PECKERWOOD BOOK CLUB: Reading Glasses Are Consumables, Plus Jess Walter's "So Far Gone!"

Greetings, reading sloots! It's time once again to share what books you've been reading, which ones to avoid, but mostly, which ones you heartily recommend, because we could all use a good yarn in These Trying Times™, amireet?

Speaking of reading - in bed or on the couch - if you're like me, your eyes have started that slow, inevitable betrayal which demands reading glasses. Shudder. And if you're also like me, you don't invest in those $200 designer frames, you buy the cheapest damn pharmacy readers you can find. Why? Because you know their lifespan will be tragically brief. The moment the phone rings, someone dares to knock (the nerve!), or the hubs emits a sound requiring immediate attention, those glasses are flung off faster than a flimsy cocktail dress during a tawdry alleyway encounter (no one can see you except that homeless dude peeking out from the Dumpster!). I jump into action, dismissing the wee plastic cheaters with a negligent - but stylish, always stylish - flick of the wrist.

You know what's coming next, don't you? The dreaded sound, or a soft, yet utterly final ka-runch. You've sat back down, climbed back into bed, or just stepped backwards, and there they are, another pair of innocent readers have meet their tragic demise beneath the weight of your butt-cheeks or footsies. Sad emoticon. 

And no, I'm not going to wear those hideous, chained spectacles like someone's mothballed, judgmental Aunt MooMoo. I'd rather live in blissful, blurry denial. Wheeeee! So I don't solve the problem? I just manage the inevitable. Twice a year, I perform the sacred ritual, a semi-annual, four-pair, bulk-buy pilgrimage to the nearest CVS. They're not readers, they're consumables. Like pantyhose. Or that fleeting moment of guilt after eating an entire pint of ice cream (this lasts merely 30 seconds).

Meanwhile, have I got an absorbing read for you this time around, a literary novel that's fun, surprising and even wise. It's Jess Walter's "So Far Gone." 

In this lively comedy-drama, Rhys, an aging man living off the grid and estranged from his adult daughter, Bethany, is surprised when her children are abruptly brought to stay with him - since Bethany has inexplicably vanished. That she may have run away from her husband, Shane, a member of an extremist religious militia group, only ups the ante in a fast-moving, frequently head-turning scenario, one that’s grounded by likable, dimensional characters.

Rhys is a superbly drawn cranky hero, and though your sympathies always reside with him, you can understand how others, especially Bethany, might find him intolerable, or at least a bit of a blowhard. The story unfolds partly like a road movie, the sometimes frantic action dovetailing nicely with its central drama, wherein Rhys comes to see that rejoining the world is perhaps better than running away from it.

In addition to Rhys, the remaining characters are memorably drawn, such as Bethany, whose conflicted relationship with her father as a youth at least partly explains her troubled relationship with men as an adult. That she soon comes to this realization, and is able to convincingly work through it, is one of "So Far Gone's" better through-lines. Also of note is Chuck, a humorously hopped-up ex-homicide detective ready to come to Rhys’ aid in order to impress Lucy, his hard-nosed ex-girlfriend. Lucy, we learn, is also Rhys ex-girlfriend, and the brusque manner in which she handles these two seemingly out-of-control ex-lovers is one of the novel’s better comic highlights.

The rest of the characters add to the fun, including Leah and Asher, Bethany’s children; Leah being a teen bookworm devoted to her pastor’s son, who may or may not be gay, while Asher is the happy, bouncing-off-the-walls nine-year-old who’s thrilled by all the ruckus. As for Shane, Bethany’s ex who’s now a part of the religious militia group, he and his cohorts are not drawn as foolhardy, but as believable, even terrifying, threats. Yet "So Far Gone" is ultimately less about Shane and the militia and more about Rhys and Bethany, and how this father and daughter, each entrenched and stubborn, try to find a way back to each other. You'll enjoy it, I promise. 

As for your Bibliophile Bendy Boy™, he's nearly done with his latest book, and this time needs something thicker, juicier and uncensored. Oh, won't you help him out? You'll be glad you did.

Till next time, harlots, and don't forget to recommend your new or old faves for the rest of us. 

Photo Credits: Harper Books, Oliveralpha