Hold On to Tomorrow

Henry (As the Storm Clouds Gather) delivers a dull coming-of-age story with a thin veneer of suspense centered on the JFK assassination. On the morning of Nov. 22, 1963, 23-year-old Dallas resident Jolene Johnson is working as the secretary for a company housed in the Texas School Book Depository. Though she’s initially excited that the presidential motorcade will pass by her office, a flyer accusing Kennedy of treason leads her to suspect “this day was going to go unbelievably sour.” The foreshadowing doesn’t get much subtler from there: that afternoon, Jolene has a chance encounter with an acquaintance who works in building named Lee Harvey Oswald. Henry attempts to build tension by toggling between the lead-up to the shooting and flashbacks to other turning points in Jolene’s life, including her decision to attend college and pursue a career in journalism, the dissolution of a romantic relationship, and her political awakening, which led her to break with her right-wing family. Unfortunately, neither the setting nor the characters come to life. Muddy prose (“The wave inside of me crested, knocking loose some bricks in the wall that had built up around my soul”) doesn’t help matters. It’s a letdown. Agent: Lindsay Guzzardo, Martin Literary. (Apr.)