Son of a Gun

June 3, 2013
A young man wrestles with his heartache over his mother’s murder in this lacerating memoir of family dysfunction. St. Germain was a 20-year-old college student when his mother Debbie was shot to death in 2001 by her fifth husband in a desolate trailer in the Arizona desert, a disaster that threw into sharp relief the chaos of his working-class background. St. Germain revisits Debbie’s unstable life as an Army paratrooper and businesswoman, the string of men she took up with (some physically abusive), and his own boyhood resentment at their presence and at incessant domestic upheaval. Intertwined is a jaundiced, somewhat self-conscious meditation on St. Germain’s claustrophobic hometown of Tombstone—all sun-bleached ennui, arid hardpan, and tourist kitsch—and its presiding spirit, Wyatt Earp, archetype of the violent, trigger-happy machismo that he blames for killing his mother, yet feels drawn to as a touchstone of manhood. St. Germain makes harsh judgments of the men in his past (as well as of his sullen, callous adolescent self), but as he seeks them out later, he arrives, almost against his will, at a subtler appreciation of their complexities. At times his trauma feels more dutiful than deeply felt, but his memoir vividly conveys the journey from youthful victimization toward mature understanding.

December 1, 2013
In this somber memoir, St. Germain chronicles his mother's murder at the hands of his stepfather, who shot her eight times in her shoulder and chest, then left her in a trailer in the desert. The who, what, where, and how are well known; the only mystery left is why it happened. St. Germain does not find any easy answers as he recalls his own childhood in Arizona, revisiting his memories of the mother he only partially knew. She was a woman of contradictions: she had a career as an army paratrooper but also became involved in a series of abusive relationships that damaged all the members of her small family. Her son writes with clear-eyed acknowledgment of the harm this caused him, admitting that he couldn't fully grieve at the time of her death, yet would never shake off the shadow cast over his future. Narrator George Newbern's youthful voice and the restrained emotion he conveys capture the mournful, compassionate, and self-reflective tone of the book. VERDICT Well done on all fronts; highly recommended. [One of "LJ"'s Best Core Nonfiction titles of 2013, p. 26.--Ed.]--Victoria A. Caplinger, NoveList, Durham, NC

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2013
In 2001, days after the Twin Towers fell, University of Arizona student St. Germain is notified by his roommate-brother, Josh, that their mother has been shot and killed, murdered at her home in Tombstone, best known for its connection with Wyatt Earp. St. Germain was raised there, and he uses the Earp legend and its history in counterpoint to his own. In the succeeding days, while President Bush addresses the nation's grief on television, Josh and Justin try to come to terms with theirs, and over the succeeding years, they try to sort out the details of the crime and of their unusual mom's life. Their mother's husband (her fifthand we meet them all), Ray, a local cop and the presumed killer, is found dead, a suicide, three months after the crime, thus eliminating any mystery element here, and St. Germain fails to bring sufficient drama or tension to the story of his quest to substitute for this missing ingredient. Still, the book's similarity to James Ellroy's best-selling account of his mother's murder, My Dark Places (1996), and the likelihood of media appearances by St. Germain may generate considerable demand.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)