Liam’s Going

Michael Joyce
McPherson & Company (2008)
ISBN 9780929701882
Reviewed by Danielle Feliciano for Reader Views (11/08)

 

“Liam’s Going” is a beautiful, almost poetically written story about the Williams family and how the parents, Cathleen and Noah, come to terms with their only son Liam leaving for college.  For reasons that I did not totally understand, rather than make this a family trip, Cathleen alone drives Liam to college, leaving Noah behind. 

It became evident rather quickly that Cathleen was extremely self-involved and this trip was about her, not about her son.  For me, it was inappropriate, not to mention uncomfortable, when she was speaking to Liam about how she went to school there one summer, but silently thought of his reaction of her having a lover there, while married to his father.  She was not merely reminiscing in her mind about this, which could have been forgivable, but was actually thinking of her lover with her son on her mind.  Later in the story when the reader found out that Cathleen insisted Noah keep up pictures of his college love, I pretty much wrote off this couple as being not happily married, but easily entwined in each other’s dysfunction.

As Cathleen and Liam travelled to college, Noah sat at home and began reminiscing himself about a woman in his past.  I found it disconcerting that both of these adults spent more time thinking about old lovers and past happiness than they did thinking about each other, their strained marriage or the son they were letting go of.

While the characters were not people I liked or cared about, the writing was beautiful and made the transitions between past and present seamless.  At times I felt the author was trying too hard to be “literary” and the writing got away from him but overall, if you are looking for a deep tale of love, loss and coming to terms with life, “Liam’s Going” by Michael Joyce would be the book for you.

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