THE LENT HAND

A beautifully woven novel about an unusual boy and how he finds his way.

Love for one’s mother does not always come easily, and such is the case for Jeromeo “Jerry” Clover in K.’s (Honey B., 2012, etc.) lyrical novel. Jerry’s mother, Helen, a flower child, rejects society’s expectations: She had Jerry as a single mom and changes her name to Starlight. She left Jerry in the care of her mother, Eileen, who raises him with the help of her second husband, Carl, with so much love that Jerry doesn’t even miss his mother or mind her absence. He comes to see Starlight as someone who found “the real world an interesting place to hang out for a while, appreciating the customs of its citizens enough to visit but not stay.” Starlight visits Jerry sporadically, but she’s mostly a nonentity in his life, and it’s his stepgrandfather who ensures that Jerry goes to college. Upon graduating, Jerry begins working, first as the manager of a small chain of batting cages, where he quickly learns how to turn an average business into something more successful. He enjoys the work until an injury forces him to leave and find something new; he eventually enters the towing business. Tragedy strikes suddenly when Carl dies of an aneurysm, and things begin to shift dramatically for Jerry, who is now 30. Eileen decides to take in a young divorced woman, Rose Hardeen, and her two kids, to live with her and Jerry. As the families live side by side, a romance ignites between Jerry and Rose. Told in a poetic and insightful manner, Jerry’s story is funny and touching as the young man learns to find his way through relationships, having had such disrupted ones of his own. As he learns to be a father, without having really been a son, Jerry learns a lot about himself and the people around him.

A comical, honest love story between two lost souls who complete each other.