YOUR FATHER HAS SOMETHING TO TELL YOU

Family secrets emerge from packets of old letters and current crises open old wounds in Riese’s latest novel.

Mark and Leslie’s elderly parents have lapsed in their struggle with alcoholism, which prompts Mark to take a leave of absence from his job to care for them. Riese, the author of Blue Dress (2016), efficiently establishes the family dynamic: Leslie, the “organized” yet “overbearing” daughter; Mark, the doting son; Kat, the kindhearted mother who laughs at her husband’s crude humor; and her spouse, Charles, the curmudgeon. The novel repeatedly reinforces their dysfunction via present-day events that mirror Mark’s childhood memories. When he fails to land a promotion at his job, for instance, he remembers his father’s previous experience at an engineering firm where he professionally languished while his colleagues “became senior managers, one even becoming president of the company.” The story has moments that are touching. However, with so many memories crowding the present, readers may have difficulty locating what the novel is actually trying to say. The importance of reconciliation comes to mind, though, when Mark confronts his father about the night he told Mark he’d become “too old to kiss you before going to bed”—a rebuke that gave the child nightmares and even made him wet the bed. Mark’s father admits to a fear that Mark would “become” gay, which leads readers to an unexpected revelation. For Mark, the conversation “explains many moments in the past” and brings the two of them closer. However, too many dramatic events—including a major character’s death and another’s health scare—happen between the first hints of the dad’s secret and the final, frank conversation between father and son to keep readers engaged.

A sometimes-affecting but unfocused family drama.