Hometown Brew

June 1, 1998
Though the struggle between Wisconsin siblings Melissa and Frank Johnson for control of their family brewery should be at the center of this overflowing novel, a subplot about their employee Alice Reinhart, who posed at 17 for "pictures that made their way into a men's magazine," threatens from the first sentence to overwhelm the tale. Another subplot, involving the mixed legacy of the Johnsons' father (controlling even from beyond the grave), comes tantalizingly into view, but this novel is so overripe with ideas and relationships that the plot bogs down in complications. The narrative begins when Melissa's illegitimate son, Jesse, is 11 and Frank Sr. is dying after suffering a stroke at the home of one of Melissa's friends, having enjoyed a brief romance, or spasm of territorial imperative, with his son's fiancee. Although it sounds in summary like soap opera, the novel hums with complex questions about the sexual and professional initiations of Melissa and Alice, the brutal humiliation of Frank Jr. by his father and the ensuing sibling struggle for control of the brewery. Akins (Public Life) has more than one interesting tale to tell but seems to have been unable to decide which one should dominate. The result is a book with a lot of head on it: rich, murky and not quite easy to swallow.

May 1, 1998
Akins's first novel since the well-received Public Life (LJ 5/1/93) traces the fortunes of a small-town family of brewers. In the opening chapters, Melissa Johnson, the brewery owner's daughter, is an unwed mother in Colorado in unexplained circumstances. She returns home to Wisconsin and her father's acceptance. When her father dies, Melissa is named executor of the will, infuriating her brother. She makes an inept attempt to run the company but can't rein in her brother. Overlooking the obvious micro-brewery marketing niche, Frank pushes through development of a lite beer, with a sexist ad campaign that increases demand so much the company can't afford the higher production and payroll costs and is bought out by a large company. Symmetrical plot lines of Melissa's sexual involvement with the company lawyer and Frank's with an attractive brewery worker seem to be going somewhere, but the overly intellectualized narrative and inane business discussions drag the story down to the level of soap opera. A marginal purchase.--Reba Leiding, Renssalaer Polytechnic Inst., Troy, NY