The best kind of fiction, no matter how outlandish, often starts with a kernel of truth. This is especially true of stories that capture family dynamics, because our families are so deeply at the core of who we are. Mark Guerin, the debut novelist behind You Can See More From Up Here (Golden Antelope Press, October 1, 2019), borrowed from his own life experience when writing about the central relationship between a Midwestern father and son in his remarkable work of fiction. Guerin has woven a taut and fascinating story about family, race, class, secrets and the unexpected ties that bind.
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You Can See More From Up Here begins in 2004, when middle-aged Walker Maguire is called to the deathbed of his estranged father in Bedford, Illinois. While there, his thoughts return to the summer of 1974, when he’d worked at the auto factory where his dad, an unhappily retired Air Force colonel, was employed as plant physician. Witness to a bloody fight falsely blamed on a Mexican immigrant, Walker kept quiet, fearing his white coworkers and tyrannical father. His secret snowballed into lies, betrayals and eventually the disappearance of the Mexican’s family, leading to a lifelong rift between father and son. After decades of contemplating but avoiding an honest conversation with his father about that summer, Walker wonders about the aftermath, new revelations, and whether or not it is too late to make things right.
A truly engrossing story, You Can See More From Up Here transports us into its hardscrabble blue-collar world of a Midwest factory town in the 1970s. Walker’s story highlights the racial and class differences that set him apart from his coworkers, and the role those differences ultimately played in setting the unstoppable aftermath of the fight and the false accusation careening into motion. The book asks us to challenge our assumptions about what we think we know about others, and what we think we know about ourselves.
Ssouthernlifestyle ~ Sometimes the past will haunt us in the present, which is what has happened to the main character, Walker. At his father’s deathbed, Walker is searching for closure to what really happened the summer of 1974. Author Mark Guerin brilliantly weaved together the real life atmosphere of factory workers, society influences, family struggles and racism. I really enjoyed reading this book and how it made me feel like it was a true story from past to present. Highly recommend!
For more information about the author, go to www.mark-guerin.com. Leave any comments in the box below. Don’t forget to sign up on the home page to receive a weekly email from Ssouthernlifestyle and as always have a blessed day!
