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Book Summary and Reviews of Going Home by Tom Lamont

Going Home by Tom Lamont

Going Home

A Novel

by Tom Lamont

  • Critics' Consensus (18):
  • Readers' Rating (12):
  • Publishes:
  • Jan 14, 2025, 304 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

Going Home is a sparkling, funny, bighearted story of family and what happens when three men—all of whom are completely ill-suited for fatherhood—take charge of a toddler following an unexpected loss.

Téo Erskine, now in his thirties, has moved on from childish things: He has a good job, a slick apartment in London, and when he heads back to the suburbs on the occasional weekend to visit his old friends, he makes sure everyone knows he can afford to pick up the tab. So what if he asks a few too many questions about Lia, the girl of their group, wondering if she will come out, if she's seeing anyone, if she might give him another shot? Téo is hazily aware that something possibly happened between Lia and Ben Mossam, Téo's closest friend and his greatest annoyance, but he can't bring himself to ask. Lia, meanwhile, has no time to indulge their rivalry. She's now the single mother of a toddler son, a kid named Joel that Téo occasionally (and halfheartedly) offers to babysit.

Téo is home for one such weekend when the unthinkable happens—a tragedy in the heart of their group—and he suddenly finds himself the unlikely guardian for little Joel. Together with his father, Vic, Ben Mossam, and Sybil, Lia's beguiling rabbi, they bide time until they can find a proper home for Joel, teaching him to play video games, plying him with chicken nuggets and waffles, and learning to sing him lullabies at night. But when a juvenile mistake leads to a terrible betrayal, Téo must decide what kind of man he wants to be. Wise, relatable, and blissfully laugh-out-loud funny, Going Home is a captivating first novel that explores the mysterious ways children can force us to grow up fast while simultaneously keeping us young forever.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"There is so much to love about this book, foremost the poignantly, sometimes painfully detailed portrait of 30-something guys...A great premise, a great story, but most of all, great characters." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Though the story takes a while to gel, Lamont offers a textured view of Téo's family and Jewish community, and he keeps the reader invested as the characters adjust to Lia's death and attempt to figure out Joel's future. Readers will be hooked." —Publishers Weekly

"It's rare to read something that captures with such unsentimentality a child's range, their rapidly shifting obsessions, the quiddities of their language, their cunning wiles...Children seem to be more alive than adults, keener, less jaded, and this novel feels the same, pepped up and gorgeous, just bristling with life." —The Guardian

"A meltingly warm comedy." —The Observer, "Top 10 best debut novelists of 2024"

"Well-drawn characters, believable dialogue and nuanced emotions cast new light on love in this bittersweet book." —Sunday Express

"Good prose comes easily to Lamont; it can feel impressive and judicious without bring precious....Lamont continues to prove himself to be a champion and poetic transcriber of the local....Going Home has the lot. It has been a while since I've read a piece of straightforward British realism and been this impressed." —Financial Times

"In capturing the gradual and thorny journey of Joel and Téo towards becoming father and son, almost despite themselves, Lamont does something remarkable....Lamont shows that parenthood is made in the parenting, not in any blood connection. And in this honest depiction, it consists of frustration, impatience, poor sleep and rapturous moments of comedy, love and tenderness." —Literary Review

"Going Home is a poignant yet funny novel about three men taking turns at shouldering responsibility and shrugging it off, at worrying and causing worry, at giving care and needing it. Tom Lamont writes in clear, swift prose about the power struggles that exist in even the most living of families and the longest of friendships. A lyrical, hypnotic delight." —Katherine Heiny, author of Games and Rituals

"A debut which skilfully and tenderly explores male relationships, belonging and what we leave behind. I adored every moment. The characters have stayed with me ever since." —Bella Mackie, author of How to Kill Your Family

"Bittersweet, funny and moving, Going Home is all this but also has a bright ring of truth which chimes on every page." —Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground

This information about Going Home was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

Mark S. (Blauvelt, NY)

Surprisingly touching!
My fondness for this book increased with each chapter. It starts a bit slow and depressing, but this makes sense as the story develops. What initially starts out as a question of who will step up for Joel evolves into something much more complex. For a first novel, Lamont skillfully develops the characters whose lives are directly impacted by Joel's plight. What made it even more enjoyable was the way the relationships between the characters evolved as much as they each did individually. Any parent will flash back to similar instances in their own lives as these potential guardians figure out how to navigate the highs and lows of raising a child and the changes in perspective and priorities that go with the experience. By the last few chapters, I wasn't just rooting for Joel; I was rooting for all of them and couldn't put it down until I knew how it all played out. Definitely a book I will recommend to friends.

Judith G. (Greenbrae, CA)

Three Men and a Boy
GOING HOME: Tom Lamont

   Take an aging man, Vic Erskine, with a Parkinsonian-type degenerative disease, and two thirty-somethings, one of whom, Vic's son Teo, has fled the suburbs for a slick single life in London, and the other, Ben Mossam, who has stayed in town where he lives luxuriously in a mansion and does nothing because he doesn't need to do anything. Add to this, Lia, former lover of Teo's, and single mother of a toddler, (father unknown) and finally, a very unOrthodox rabbi, and you have the humorous and heartbreaking mix that is GOING HOME.
   One weekend, when Teo's visiting his father and friends, he agrees to babysit Lia's toddler, Joel. He does so the next day and while he is out with Joel, Lia commits suicide, apparently leaving Joel in Teo's permanent care, since no plans or arrangements were made.          
   The novel spins around the three men and the rabbi as they attempt to keep Joel out of foster care. Vic is eager to raise the boy, but his declining health makes this unrealistic. There is no room for a small boy in the life Teo's made for himself in London, and Ben is generous and charming and financially able, but totally unreliable.
   This is actually a novel about three boys—one only a few years old and the other two in their thirties. With all the good will in the world, neither of the boy-men comprehend what it means to grow up.
   Tom Lamont writes beautifully, with humor, charm and compassion. This situation could easily have lent itself to slapstick or sentimentality, but Lamont avoids both. The characters, including little Joel, are three-dimensional and complicated, and tagging along with them on their bumpy road is a pleasure.
    I would definitely recommend this book.

Amanda W. (Durham, NC)

Page-turning, life-affirming debut
I'm still swooning over Tom Lamott's mad writing skills, particularly his ability to swap from one point of view (POV) to another while inhabiting each authentically. Challenging enough with a few characters of similar ages, but Lamott's main characters include:

--Joel, a bereaved but still wildly curious two-and-a-half-year-old
--thirty-year-old Teo Erskine, temporary guardian of Joel
--Vic Erskine, Teo's dad

A confluence of circumstances leads the three generations (and accompanying friends and community members) to rebuild their lives together in this heart-warming and quirky novel.

Strengths of Going Home:
--character development, especially of Joel. His explorations and understanding of the world around him are spot-on for a toddler in a quickly changing home environment.
--Vic's Parkinson's disease and his desire to "make up" for his perceived failings as a parent to Teo are thoughtful and considered
--engaging story and pace
--instant "sandwich generation" story
--multi-generational male perspective

Wonderful read!

Elizabeth W. (Terrebonne, OR)

Engaging, sensitive debut novel
The novel's strengths for me
-Vividly drawn characters and relationships
-friends from different socio-economic backgrounds trying to honor the past and negotiate the harsh realities of the present.
-A rabbi accepting and responding to a temporary lapse of faith
-A thirty-year-old on the cusp of accepting responsibility for his actions and moving into his future
-A son responding to the expectations of his father and dealing with the father's end-of-life illness

I enjoyed the writing: meticulous, and descriptive.
I especially enjoyed the everyday moments; playing poker, football matches, remembrances of growing up together.
And the creativity and patience Teo needed to call upon to respond to the mundane needs of a two-year-old.
Well done!!

Patricia M. (Brunswick, GA)

Home Is Where the Heart Is
Writing students are often taught to show, don't tell. In Going Home author Tom Lamont does just that. Rather than dolling out adjective laced descriptions, he deftly shows the reader how each of his rich and varied characters handles the complex issues they meet and how their individual actions impact each other. While an initial summary of this novel - three unprepared men and a rabbi come to care for a young orphan - may call to mind a bumbling comedy, Lamont delivers a funny, empathetic, and poignant story of family, friendship, and unconditional love. Going Home unfolds by melding readers to Téo Erskine, his ailing father, Vic, his erstwhile friend, Ben, his somewhat reluctant rabbi, Sibyl, and an utterly endearing child, Joel. The author is so effective at investing the reader in the story and characters that an audible gasp escaped me when one of the characters commits a terrible blunder that threatens to destroy relationships and lives. Going Home is first rate literary fiction, offering well defined characters and a propelling plot.

Kathleen Q. (Quincy, MA)

You really can go home
Going home, demonstrates not being a good parent doesn't have to be blood related. Also it demonstrates that you really can go home. When the unthinkable happens to a single mom, Lia, leaving her toddler, Joel, motherless, one of her closest friends. Teo becomes Joel's guardian, more or less by default. The story follows the next year of Joel and Theo's journey, navigating the newly structured family with the help of friends and family, particularly Teo's, dad. It's a story about fathers and sons, and how it really does take a village to raise a child. It is a heart warming and thought-provoking story. I definitely would recommend it

...6 more reader reviews

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Author Information

Tom Lamont

Tom Lamont is an award-winning journalist and one of the founding writers for the Guardian's Long Reads. He is the interviewer of choice for Adele and Harry Styles, having written in depth about both of these musicians since they first emerged to fame in the 2010s.

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