Only Love Can Break Your Heart

October 1, 2015
Tarkington debuts with a busy coming-of-age tale set in the 1970s and '80s, with Neil Young as the soundtrack. Young's "After the Gold Rush" is the favorite record of narrator Rocky's adored half brother, Paul, who's 16 to Rocky's 7 when the story begins in 1977. Paul is a bad boy by the small-town standards of Spencerville, Virginia, which means he smokes cigarettes, drinks beer, and wears his hair long. Rocky's mother, the devout, much younger second wife of "the Old Man," aka Richard Askew, resents her husband's fondness for his wayward eldest, and her mistrust seems justified when Paul plucks Rocky from school and briefly abandons him in the woods for reasons that are as murky as the decision to rescue him. Tarkington does a better job with the vivid picture of the Askews' fraught home life and the Old Man's anxious maneuvering to get in with Spencerville's social elite, incarnated by the entitled Culver family, which moves into the mansion up the hill from his more modest home. Patriarch Brad Culver's accidental shooting of Paul, trespassing after dark, is only the first of the two families' disastrous interactions over the next decade, after Paul takes off with girlfriend Leigh Bowman following Rocky's abortive abandonment. Leigh returns just a few months later, initiating a series of melodramatic developments about as probable as Rocky's adolescent affair with Culver's spoiled, considerably older daughter, Patricia. Paul vanishes for years, but his intense, angry bond with the Old Man finally brings him home after Richard suffers a stroke brought on by misplaced trust in Brad Culver's financial wheelings and dealings. Tarkington carefully lays out his elaborate storyline and sensitively depicts his troubled characters, but it all seems rather pat, right down to the After-the-Main-Events summary that closes the novel by neatly wrapping up everyone's destinies. Well-written and observed, though the characters and situations are familiar from many, many previous novels.

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Starred review from November 1, 2015

When the Culvers move into a long-vacant mansion next to Rocky and his family in a sleepy Virginia town, they set in motion events that will eventually result in two murders, never completely solved. During the intervening years, Rocky grows up idolizing his older brother and learning about the facts of life (both carnal and spiritual) in the shadow of Twin Oaks, and of the family who occupies it. Set in the 1970s, this heartbreakingly effective coming-of-age story about the importance of love in one's life is replete with moments of harsh cruelty and tender love. Beautifully written, it vividly brings to life its Southern characters, landscape, and small-town claustrophobia. Readers will stop and reread paragraphs, not because of confusion but for the pure joy of the language. VERDICT Fans of Kathryn Stockett's The Help will embrace debut author Tarkington's depiction of Southern life at a time of changing social mores. Those who liked Daniel James Brown's The Boys in the Boat will also find much to appreciate here. Most of all, readers who can't get enough of Wiley Cash, Ron Rash, and Brian Panowich will delight in discovering this fine new writer.--Sharon Mensing, Emerald Mountain Sch., Steamboat Springs, CO

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2015
Titled after a Neil Young song, Tarkington's first novel recounts the coming-of-age of Richard Rocky Askew. Rocky is a decent kid who makes bad-boy decisions as he grows uptrysts in an older woman's hayloft, intentional expulsion from Macon Prep for explicit sketches on World Book Encyclopedia pages, just to list a couple. His big half brother, the rebellious heartthrob, Paul, pulls stunts such as abducting Rocky from school one day and leaving home for years only to return unannounced. Due in part to his reputation, Paul is framed for the double homicide of neighbors Brad and Jane Culver. The Askews and the Culvers are hyper, higher-class families burdened with internal dysfunction and unfortunate events; it seems everyone drinks and smokes to cope. From beginning to end, the plotline is intense, never flagging. From the bleeding heart Tarkington stitches on Rocky's sleeve there arises both scandal and rivalry, along with a touch of the paranormal and religious faith.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)