Last Dance at Jitterbug Lounge

April 15, 2008
When his grandfather, Bud, suffers a stroke and remains in a coma, Jack Crabtree reluctantly leaves his successful San Antonio business for rural Oklahoma. As he and estranged wife Claire wait along with the rest of the clan, however, he rediscovers his heritage and the self he had submerged in his driven quest for financial and social primacy. Bud also narrates a significant portion of the story, allowing the reader to experience firsthand the reality of his early life, military service as a gunner in the Pacific during World War II, the resultant post-traumatic stress disorder, and the loss of his only son, Jacks father, in Vietnam. Morsi has deftly interwoven reminiscences from the vanishing generation that survived the 1930s and 1940s to build new lives in the 1950s and beyond into a contemporary struggle between two people whose lives and goals have changed since they married. Time out from Jack and Claires usual hectic schedules, and enforced proximity to the values and support systems of earlier generations, may be their only hope for reconciliation.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)