Tariq Shah

I didn’t love this, other than the IL setting and I think it was a Trib recommendation...it is so internally the narrator’s story that I couldn’t connect and there are a few parts I wish I could unread about the poor dog Bullets. The last paragraph of the book is the most glorious, so that says something too. Ant (Antioch) is heading home to the Chicago area for a funeral - which he loves and recounts why in copious details for the first few pages...his buddy Vince picks him up at O’Hare. How old he is, how he’s related to the deceased, Ray a HS freshman, why he left the area, why he’s back, where he lives now - all hazy details that Ant knows but chooses not to share with the reader which creates the disconnect...even the trip from airport to the funeral is hazy in part because of a drug and alcohol stupor for Ant and Vince but also because the logistics and landscape are hazy - it wouldn’t require an overnight in a motel to get from the airport to the WI border. This becomes a needless odyssey in which Ant and Vince reminisce, spar with each other, get high and have car trouble and deal with winter weather. When they arrive at the funeral, Ant seems to be persona-non-grata, but unclear why. Seems like a tight family and neighborhood but doesn’t fit the hinterlands setting. Ray was killed by a pit bull and there is desire for vengeance but this is the last 10 pages of the book, so seems more incidental than the point of the book. Trib review says the book “explores toxic masculinity, revenge, tragedy and other forces that obscure a life’s path.” Yep, but only in a way that makes sense to those within the story. No lessons learned here. Or there for that matter.… (meer)