Book Review | Broken Record

— from Michèle Griskey —

You may already be familiar with James Wolf’s writing. He is a screenwriter with produced works and a playwright who wrote several excellent plays for the Orcas Island PlayFest. Wolf is one of two Orcas Island writers I would read anything thrown at me. So, when he threw his novel at me (figuratively, of course), I didn’t hesitate to write this review.

Broken Record opens with a letter to a detective at the Cloverdale Police Department. Someone discovered a manuscript during a home remodel. The found pages, from Henry J., are dated from 1965. In this account, we find the recorded memories of an eighteen-year-old with a family secret. Sometimes nostalgic, occasionally belligerent, often funny, Henry reveals what happened to him, his older brother, and his mom, and how a single horrible event transformed their lives.

The story doesn’t stop there. Years, later, another man, Jimmy, looks back on the summer of 1981, when he wore duct taped shoes and had a fascination with boxes in the attic where he finds artifacts from his absent father’s life. The story leads us to another important and inevitable tragedy which links to Henry’s past and Jimmy’s future.

Wolf gets to the heart of the matter with honesty and vulnerability. There’s never a trace of soppiness (one of the writer’s superpowers); instead, the narrative skillfully employs verisimilitude: The characters’ pain is real, the setting feels familiar (perhaps from the reader’s own childhood . . .), but humor lightens things up just at the right time. The lyrical writing reveals a conflicted world which juxtaposes the innocent voices of youth with things children should never experience (yet often do).

If you’re a bathtub reader like me, this book will suck you into the story until you suddenly discern all the bubbles are gone, the water is tepid, and your toes resemble blobs of dried fruit.

I highly recommend Broken Record. This timely and thoughtful book offers a remarkable family story.

You can purchase Broken Record at Amazon, Barnes & Noble. You can also order it at Darvill’s or Griffin Bay Bookstore.