A beautifully written coming-of-age story about fathers and sons in the mountains of North Carolina. Gorgeous writing that you'll want to savor, and a sad tale of a lonely genius that will haunt you long after you finish.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the preview copy

3.5 stars

"The Barrowfields" is a beautifully written book that gets stuck in its own self. Phillip Lewis is so invested in following in the footsteps of other wonderful North Carolina writers that he forgets to propel the story forward. You keep waiting for the other shoe to drop and it's a long wait and slow-mo action.

The first part of the novel that deals with the narrator's father, also named Henry, and his obsession with writing. The family tiptoes around him as he writes, drinks, and practices some law. It is creepy dysfunctionality, heightened by the fact that they have bought a large weird house in their small town where murders occurred. Young Henry's take on his father and family is the most compelling part of the novel, because by the time young Henry is off on his own both he and the book become unmoored.

Son Henry is just not as interesting as his dad, and his struggles did not engage me. His mother and sister behave in ways that don't seem to fit with the people we met in part one. The relationship with Story--argh.

Phillip Lewis is a wonderful writer, and that's what kept me reading. I see a someone who will develop in plotting skills and then, boy will he be someone to watch out for!

Characters and setting are the focal points of The Barrowfields, the promising debut novel by Phillip Lewis. The plot centers around the theme of parents and children and of children's ability to overcome the scars of their childhood. With beautiful writing, the author conjures up a dark and somewhat Gothic feel of a story-filled old mansion in the middle of 1980s North Carolina.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2017/03/the-barrowfields.html

Reviewed for NetGalley & Penguin First to Read.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33869612-the-barrowfields" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="The Barrowfields" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1484590632m/33869612.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33869612-the-barrowfields">The Barrowfields</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/390008.Phillip_Lewis">Phillip Lewis</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1777903993">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I enjoyed this debut novel, a coming of age story set in the Appalachian Mountains. Henry is the son of a brilliant man who was born very poor, but went away to college, became a lawyer, had one big case that made him some money, and bought an old sinister mansion of metal and glass. <br />This story follows the family life in this house, it is a tragic story, and Henry's going away to college, meeting a woman and bringing her back to the mountains to try and make peace with his life there, and the father who left his family when he was 16.<br />This is also a story of sibling love and family commitments.<br /><br />Thank you to NetGalley, Crown Publishing, and Phillip Lewis!
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/12851291-karen">View all my reviews</a>

Some books take a long time to read. This was one of them. Literary, scholarly, the book was an offering of respect for words themselves. For the reader, no skimming, only immersion. The musical references caused me to pause, wake up to what that world had to offer. Ironic because the characters were trudging through a dirge of mythic proportions that no worldly offering could ameliorate. The only upbeat character was the dog. Because of the dog, I was able to keep reading. The lack of respite from depression was harrowing but I could not stop reading.

If one is looking for a light read, this is not it. But if a reader is drawn to debut fiction, especially by an author who has honed his craft, then this book is worth the time it demands.

Thanks Crown Publishing and netgalley for this ARC.

Everyone says this a one of the great american novels, so I'm happy to have read and liked it.

I loved this family epic

This hauntingly, well-written book will be at the top of my favorite book list.

"O brothers, like our fathers in their time, we are burning, burning burning in the night." --Thomas Wolfe

Phillip Lewis's debut novel The Barrowfields is a remarkable story, beautifully written and wise. Henry's journey resonates with self-recognition and affirms that going home can open the path to the future.

The language is lush with a penchant for rarefied words, a nod to Thomas Wolfe's poetic and verbose style, and the novel is imbued with vivid descriptions and cinematic scenes.

The protagonist Henry Aster narrates the story of his family, beginning with the first settlers in Old Buckham. Settled deep in 'the belly' of the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, "a town of ghosts and superstitions," and populated by under a thousand people, 'everyone else lived in the hills beyond.' His grandparents survived on little but were content.

Henry's father was considered "awful queer," a bookish boy who idolized Thomas Wolf. University provided an escape and brought him a love of Poe and Faulkner. After graduation he teaches while writing, winning early acclaim before faltering. He wants to write the great American novel--to prove his worth. Then he is called back home to care for his failing mother. The family moves into an abandoned mansion on a hill, a 'macabre' house with dark corners, haunted by ghosts. A lawyer by day, at night he retreats into a cubbyhole room to struggle with his unmanageable novel and his growing alcoholism.

"Aster's work, for all its brilliance, is impenetrable."

Henry had idolized his dad; they shared a love of books and music. But he and his sister Threnody watch their father retreat from the world until he is a 'ghost.' They pledged to always be there for the other. After the tragic death of a new sibling, their father succumbs to despair and deserts his family.

Henry leaves Old Buckram for university and law school. He falls in love with Story, a conflicted girl with her own father issues and a fear of intimacy. As he supports Story in her search for her father, returning to her home town of Lot's Folly, Henry realizes that he also must go home again and confront his past, and face the sister he abandoned.

" I suppose that one can never leave a place completely."

Wolfe's influence pervades the novel, from the setting and theme of the search for the father to the influence of Wolfe on Henry and his father: just before Henry graduates from Chapel Hill he reads Look Homeward, Angel and You Can't Go Home Again and "never got over them entirely."

The role of books is hugely important. The Barrowfields is a 'wasteland of nothingness," a desolate opening in the woods outside of Old Buckham. When the town gathers there to burn Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, Henry implores his father to stop the book burning. In a frighting scene, his father stands up to the crowd to defend and protect the volume from the fire.

Our past leaves its scars and questions, and painful as it is, we become free by confronting it. Lewis has written a story that hearkens back to the great literature of the past while offering insight into the universal human condition.

You can learn more about Lewis and his debut novel in my interview with the author in my blog post on February 26, 2017.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

While this story centers around Henry from his early years, it begins with the stories of his father and his mother – and their beginnings.

Old Buckram, an old town where time has stood fairly still since the first people laid down roots, is home. It sits in “high in the belly of the Appalachian Mountains.” Beyond the outskirts of the town lay the Barrowfields, a place where almost nothing grows. Henry’s grandparents, Helton and Madeline, have lived an ordinary, if hardscrabble, life. They raised their son, also named Henry, there. But Henry’s vision was for another life, another way of life surrounded by people who were more like him, in awe of the great authors he admired, and that he also aspired to become.

While still young, Henry – the father – loved reading; it was his lifeline to a life outside the shadows of the mountains, to a life beyond what he could see outside his window. He liberally borrows books from his local library, and what he sees and feels inside these pages are what form his vision of his future life.

When he marries Eleonore, they live in an apartment in Baltimore near both the Edgar Allan Poe house and the H.L. Mencken house. It’s an idyllic life for him, for them. He gives her nicknames borrowed from his favourite books.

And then home beckons. Duty calls Henry and Eleonore to Old Buckram. Eleonore is full of contagious optimism, seeing this haven in her mind where a simple, beautiful life can be found. Once there, Henry finds a home for sale on Ben Hennom, an architectural oddity that seems to dwell in the shadows of the mountain no matter what time of day. It is where they will raise young Henry and later on Henry’s sister Threnody, born when Henry was nine.

Gorgeous prose, this is the kind of book best read when and where you can sink into the atmospheric setting, and follow young Henry’s struggles to come to terms with his ties to this place, disappointments, family, love and despair.

A splendidly layered debut, coming-of-age story about home, and family, set in this strange, almost gothic and sinister dwelling, with a tragic and somewhat cursed past. Fathers and sons, their unique relationship. Older siblings to younger ones. For all, the comforting bond of a shared memory.

Recommended


Pub Date: 07 Mar 2017


Many thanks for the ARC provided by Crown Publishing / Hogarth