PARTS UNKNOWN

A grim and meandering debut about the unhappy lives of an unhappy couple.

Bill Argus, a well-known nature photographer, is in his early 60s and starting to take stock of his life. A country boy from northern California, he grew up on his father’s ranch and married Annie Hayes, the daughter of a local landowner, when he was 21. It was a shotgun marriage and didn’t work out very well. To begin with, Annie’s people were a lot grander than Bill’s, making in-law tensions doubly difficult. And Bill, artistic and dreamy, just wasn’t cut out to be a rancher. So, after only a couple of years, he ran off, leaving Annie to raise their baby boy, Hayes, on her own. Eventually, Bill met and married Nora, who was a good 20 years younger than himself, and settled down on a hacienda in the desert—where he took most of the photographs that made his reputation. But now, 40 years after he left Annie and Hayes, Bill wants to see them again. It’s even harder than you might think for Bill to go back—for one thing, Annie has never so much as mentioned his name to Hayes (who thinks that his father was an Air Force test pilot who died in a crash). And Bill’s brother Cameron, who sold most of the family ranch when his parents died 20 years ago, has reasons of his own to keep Bill at arm’s length. Nora, who narrates most of the story, understands Bill’s need to come to terms with his past. A former prostitute who was abused as a child by her mother’s boyfriend, Nora knows full well how memories and mistakes can haunt you for years after the fact. She supports Bill as he prepares to receive what he knows will be a poor welcome.

Shapeless, soggy, sentimental.