Raising Jake

July 6, 2009
Sammy Sullivan, a “crusty old rewrite man” at a New York City tabloid, and his teenage son embark on a weekend of male bonding in Carillo’s witty, insightful second novel. After rough-edged Sammy is fired and his son, Jake, gets expelled from his elite private school, father and son, who’ve grown apart, decide to spend the weekend revisiting places that hold the key to Sammy’s past and may shed light on Jake’s future. Along the way, Sammy confronts painful memories of his religiously obsessive mother and introduces Jake to the boy’s long-estranged grandfather while both try to figure out what’s next. In this coming-of-age tale, there’s often a question of who is parenting whom. Carillo, a former reporter for the New York Post
, has an easy way with breezy prose and likable characters.