The Guncle

 

What a wonderful novel by Steven Rowley! The Guncle is the story of the summer that Gay Uncle Patrick (called GUP by the kids) ia minding his niece and nephew, Maisie and Grant. Their mother, Sarah, a college friend of Patrick's, has recently died and their father, Greg, who is also Patrick's brother, has just admitted to the family that during Sarah's illness he had become addicted to pills. Greg will spend the summer in rehab near Patrick's Palm Springs home while the kids stay with Patrick.

Patrick, in addition to grieving the loss of Sarah, is grieving the loss of his partner, Joe, who died several years earlier in a car accident. As a result, Patrick has stepped out of life as an actor, has stopped driving, and mostly just sticks to his home in Palm Springs. He feels very ill-equipped to be a substitute parent for Maisie and Grant.

The threesome, with some bumps, makes it through the 90 days of Greg's rehab. The characters were so well-developed and so real. This issues were authentic. And the book just makes you think about life and about the importance of living every day.

I started by listening to The Guncle while out walking. The author reads the text and he does a great job of that. I had one and a half tracks left to listen to on a flight from Denver to Tampa. I was afraid I'd dose off while listening and would miss a little something. Of course that was the case. And of course the audio book expired the day after I returned to Florida. I was lucky that I was able to withdraw the e-book from the library and went back to read the last few chapters of the book. I realized that I'd barely dozed, had heard most of it, but was pleased to listen to the final chapters again.

I expected this to be a light-hearted read. It was, but it was also quite deep. I'd highly recommend.