The Namesake

February 18, 2013
Parlato constructs an introspective debut about the aftershocks of family trauma. Fifteen-year-old Evan Galloway, a talented artist and good student, is reeling from the suicide of his father on Easter. Evan is determined to begin "Dad-excavating" his father's past, since his repressed family won't help him find the reasons for his father's decision. Evan mines his father's paintings, tapes, journal entries, and poems, as well as contacting his father's former teachers and employers, patching together the life of a man he never really knew. Meanwhile, Evan's relationship with his best friend (who's recovering from sexual abuse) is morphing into an unrequited romance. Evan's journeyâlocating the wounds in his father's past (in which Catholicism played a large part), unburdening himself of blame and the fear that he will follow in his father's footsteps, and salvaging his current relationshipsâis complex and solidly woven. Though the dialogue occasionally lacks the shine of Parlato's prose, his ambitious, well-executed plot twists and nimbly handled cast make him a name to watch. Ages 14âup. Agent: Victoria Marini, Gelfman Schneider Literary Agency.

December 15, 2012
Evan Galloway, in his third year at Saint Sebastian's Catholic High School, is told to "write what you know" for his college-application essays. But it's what he doesn't know that is haunting him. "It's funny how perfectly life splits into before and after," Evan says. Before his father killed himself, home life was pretty normal--Campbell's soup casseroles, Monopoly tournaments, building model airplanes and Dad falling asleep in the leather chair. Now there's a hole in that life that can't be filled or explained. Evan takes on a quest for answers: What is God's plan? Why didn't his father stick around to see what Evan would become? Just as Evan's first-person narrative begins to feel awash in angst, he finds his father's journal, and the story becomes compelling, as answers to questions slowly surface. With his friend Alexis, Evan goes "Dad-excavating." His digging for answers "let[s] the dragon out of the cave," though, as troubling information unfolds about his father's school life, his job as an altar boy and Father Fran's unusual interest in offering private art lessons. Parlato's debut novel, many years in the making, is a painstaking dissection of a father's past and its reverberations in his son's life. A memorable, disturbing story, carefully wrought. (Fiction. 14 & up)

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 1, 2013

Gr 9 Up-Fifteen-year-old Evan Galloway is struggling to deal with his father's recent suicide, but going to the same Catholic school that his father attended and dealing with his mother's emotional detachment don't make it any easier. So when his grandmother gives him a footlocker that belonged to his father, Evan is all too eager to discover some answers to his nagging questions. He expects to find old posters and mementos, but what he doesn't count on is finding his dad's old journals. As Evan goes on a journey to connect with his late father, he makes a chilling discovery that as a boy, his father was sexually molested by a Catholic priest, and Evan is able to slowly piece together the role this played in the man's suicide. The story is powerful, and the plot is well crafted, but the writing alternates between choppy and engaging, and the dialogue often feels forced. The story is slow to unfold, and reluctant readers are unlikely to push past the first few pages. Committed and patient readers, however, will take something away from this thoughtful coming-of-age story.-Candyce Pruitt-Goddard, Hartford Public Library, CT

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.