Finding Caruso: Summary and book reviews of Finding Caruso by Kim Barnes, plus links to an excerpt from Finding Caruso and a biography of Kim Barnes.

Seven years separate Buddy from his big brother, Lee, but the boys have always been close, comforting and protecting each other as their father - defeated by poor land and hostile weather - sank deeper into alcohol and rage. When a drink-fueled accident takes not only his life but that of the mother who tried so hard to shield her sons, the boys sell off what little remains of their daddy's tenant farm and leave Oklahoma. It is 1957, and work is still to be had in the logging camps of northern Idaho. But just outside Snake Junction, they stop at a roadhouse; and there, Lee's country-and-western talents get him a job. The two settle in, Lee to his music-and women and drink - and seventeen-year-old Buddy to roaming the landscape, at loose ends until a woman nearly twice his age turns up. Irene Sullivan is a smoky beauty, and Lee makes a play for her. But it is Buddy she wants. By turns darkly violent and heartbreakingly tender, Finding Caruso is a work of extraordinary emotional power from an astonishingly original writer.

Media Reviews

Kirkus Reviews - Sally Wofford-Girand A Bronte-esque debut novel about wretched families, childhood grief, love and betrayal, by poet and memoirist Barnes - told in a polished if somewhat precious voice (I abide in the whisper of wind through an old mare's bones) that sounds more evocative of Greenwich Village than Idaho.   Library Journal Celebrated for her stories, poetry, and memoirs-especially In the Wilderness, a Pulitzer contender-Barnes tries her hand at full-length fiction. Two brothers fleeing 1950s Oklahoma after their parents' death wind up in a honky-tonk town on the edge of nowhere, where the teenaged Buddy soon becomes the prey of an older woman.   Booklist - Donna Seaman Starred Review. Barnes is as fluent in provocative metaphors as in she in scenes of profound conflict and revelation--Buddy is forced to face the cruel consequences of family betrayals, racial hatred, and thwarted love. Chris Offutt Kim Barnes writes with great honesty, beauty and compassion.... This book is terrific.

Recent Reader Reviews

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