Buckeye: A Novel Review
| Published | 2024-07-07 |
| Genre | Fiction,Family Saga |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Dial Press |
| ISBN-10 | 0593448496 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0593448496 |
📝Buckeye: A Novel — My Honest Review
Written and reviewed by Shadab Alam. The opinions and rating in this review are my own.
Summary:
Set in the 1960s and 70s, "Buckeye" is a powerful and heart-wrenching novel that follows a family in the American Midwest. It tells the story of a young man navigating the complexities of his mother's ambitions and his father's failures. As secrets unravel and the pressures of the era mount, the family must confront the thin line between love and betrayal in a changing America.
✅ What I Liked
The dialogue is sharp and funny without straining for it. The period detail feels lived-in rather than researched. And the mother-son dynamic sidesteps every cliché you'd expect it to fall into.
❌ What Could Be Better
The middle sections get dense enough to drag, and a couple of the secondary characters stay thinner than the central family does.
Ryan's strength is dialogue. People talk the way people actually talk, around things, past each other, and the mother-son relationship at the core dodges every easy version of itself. She's no saint, he's not just a wounded kid, and Ryan lets both of them be difficult.
The middle gets dense, sentences stacking until the momentum thins out. But the thing underneath, a kid wanting to be seen by parents too busy failing to notice, lands regardless of the decade. Not flashy. Good in a low-key way, and it sticks.
📊Shadab's Rating
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