The Patricide of George Benjamin Hill

Starred review from December 1, 2018
Beginning on the seemingly perpetual frontier of Alaska and roaming back decades to the Dust Bowl migration to California, Charlesworth's debut novel follows the Hill family as it suffers the dark side of the great American dream. At the crux of this drama is the dogged ambition of George Benjamin Hill, who, after losing both parents during the Great Depression, meets and weds Mary, has two sons, and is thrust into the emerging fast-food industry, where franchised dreams come with burgers and milkshakes. The tragic assassination of President Kennedy plays no small part in the disintegration of Hill's first family and the moving of his concurrent other family to the construction site of an Alaskan oil pipeline, steptwins in tow. The devastated sons from the first family seek to make their own mark on the world: one chasing baseball fame, the other volunteering for Vietnam. The twins struggle with vice and violence while still trying to support each other. Charlesworth's saga takes a sweeping sideways look at American ambition and even the great American novel. However, the tone is never cynical in this family tragedy. Rather, there is a beautiful sadness as well as mournful anger as Charlesworth evokes the loss following consequential choices.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)