Great follow up to Recovery. ( )

In the first book Adam, a former soldier who came back home from was was not able to return to his old life, found shelter in Calvin's hunting lodges in a small town in Texas. Someone could see Adam's decision as a run from reality, as if he wasn't faced the true. I see it instead as if Adam chose to go back the real meaning of life, and to find it, he had to go in a place where there wasn't superstructure, where he had only the essential, and so to see and find the real purpose of his life is simpler.

Calvin is like the place they live, simpler and strong, steady. It's exactly the type of man Adam needs, and it's really not important that he is old like Adam's father, worst that he was Adam's father former lover. Calvin is a man of no surprise, he lives his day beat by the world outside, and not by his whims; every single morning Adam wakes up, Calvin is already awake, in the kitchen, it's a constant, it's homey, it's the life Adam wants and needs.

But as the place and the man are true like life, also the feel of the book is true, Calvin and Adam know that they can't promise forever, that Adam is way younger than Calvin and that there will be a moment when Adam will loose Calvin, and not for Calvin's choice. But as dreadful this thought is, it's another proof that this is the life: it's right that Adam, younger than Calvin, is the one that will remain past Calvin, it's not right that a war kills the youngest, it's right that the life flows with its ordinary pace.

The story allows also Adam and Calvin to confront with the outside life; first Adam's father, William, that even if worried, probably accepts the situation since he realizes that it's good for his son, and since maybe he trusts Calvin. Then Adam's mother, with her stubborn refusal to see what is good for her son. Adam and Calvin has also the chance to meet two different type of 'stranger': a couple, father and son, from Calvin's world, that allows them to see how their life probably will be in the future, and a group of former soldiers, from Adam's world this time, that shows them that what they are building now is something good and right.

If I go by memory, Recovery Ranch is a very nice sequel to Recovery, but it's also way more accomplished and involving.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002XULFN6/?tag=elimyrevandra-20