Angol
It's 1974 in DeKalb County, Illinois, and the planets have failed to align for Roy Conlon. Widowed and broke, he finds that his eight-year-old son Eric is suddenly a mystery to him. The boy has become aware of a sky awhirl with stars and of the universe outside his small Midwestern town. And as powerful forces pull Eric away, Roy's efforts to hold onto his son are threatened by weakness, guilt, and his participation in a foolish crime. Enter "The Constellations", a novel of the diverging paths of a father and his son, and how each copes with the loss of the woman whose love and guidance held them together. Roy and Eric's parallel journey takes them through a landscape populated by long-shot players and kitchen sink philosophers, by ruthless thieves and fierce protectors. A compelling novel of small-town America in the shadow of Vietnam and Wategate, "The Constellations", with its spare prose and deftly drawn heroes, completes a portrait of our country reminiscent of the work of Mark Richard and Jim Shepard. Scarred, divided, and damaged, Kevin Cunningham's characters represent all of our false promises and failed dreams.
