cover image The Boy in the Gap

The Boy in the Gap

Paul Soye. Liberties (Dufour, dist.), $23.95 (276p) ISBN 978-1-905483-41-9

Playwright Soye's first novel is a complex, sad tale of how a young man's violent future is shaped by the carelessly cruel decisions of those around him. Jack Sammon sits in jail, accused of a violent crime in his small, rural Irish community. As Jack scribbles memories into a copy book, he tries to figure out how he came to commit the crime, and where a family secret fits in. After Jack's father dies, his mother, Kay, commits to Joe, who's uninterested in being a responsible husband and father. More than his brother and sister, Jack is affected by his mother's marriage, and as he grows older, he drinks and steals. This story line is not distinctive enough to serve as a viable excuse for Jack's crimes as an adult; we've read many similar narratives in which a struggling widow chooses the wrong man. Though Soye's rendering of setting and dialogue is remarkable, the chronology (which jumps back and forth in time, mimicking memory) can be hard to follow and the female characters are ciphers. (Sept.)