The Lake: Father and Son: A Novel

When Joe and Rebecca Crabbe divorced, Rebecca took their son Jerry and moved to Colorado. Every summer, father and son spend two weeks together; this year, a trip to a lakeside cabin is planned. Joe packs a large supply of Jack Daniels along with the groceries, and, as an afterthought, buys 14-year-old Jerry a .22 rifle for entertainment. Predictably, the boy shoots his father in the leg. The pain hardly seems to penetrate the elder Crabbe's alcohol-hazed memories of his crumbling marriage. For Jerry, though, the stress of this vacation causes an ulcer to flare up, and it is while recuperating that he recounts the details of these two weeks, his story alternating with his father's bleak history of love destroyed. The writing is competent, but there are few engaging moments in a lackluster narrative that revolves around a selfish, pedantic drinker and an adolescent boy too uncomplicated to be living in this century. Edwards is the author of The Mules that Angels Ride. December