DEPART FROM ME

Schulte’s novel recounts the life story of the son of migrant workers.

The story opens with the birth and childhood of Miguel Hammer, who grew up with a loving, Christian mother and an indifferent father in a family of poor migrant workers in South Texas, with the head of the family continually looking for the next job working in the fields. The novel limns the family’s travels, young Miguel’s loss of his family and his subsequent entry into the foster care system, his close calls with drug dealers and the law, his first experiences in the world of nonmigratory jobs, and his efforts to gain scholarships and make progress in school. He meets his future wife, Marsha, in college, and they marry and start a family; Miguel vows to do everything he can to provide for them. Although Miguel doesn’t seem to care much about faith, Marsha is pleased that her children seem active in the church. Schulte’s tale of people living through their everyday lives is obviously heartfelt and will certainly strike a chord of recognition with some Christian readers. Miguel and particularly Marsha are layered, sympathetic characters. Unfortunately, the book unfolds in prose so wooden that it often yanks the audience right out of the tale. When Miguel is having a heart-to-heart with his teenage son, Jack, for instance, he says, “Your mother and I have many different interests which add to our marriage,” to which Jack responds, “I feel fortunate to be raised by you both.” Even in private conversations, characters constantly repeat one another’s names, trivial scenes are stretched far beyond their dramatic worth, and so on. Readers who can wade through such mistakes may take some satisfaction in the fate that awaits Miguel, who repeatedly turns away from his religion, although that same development makes for an abrupt turn of events.

An oddly flat-footed story of a man who falls short in his faith.