While not the best of the four Bascombe novels (e.g., Let Me Be Frank with You), it is still a worthy conclusion to a series that ranks with Updike’s “Rabbit” novels for its incisive take on American life across several decades.
Wejchert’s personal relationship with the climbers, especially Emmett, make for a compelling, page-turning story. This title is recommended for fans of adventure stories.
Highly recommended as a sincere, sometimes brutal, but always sturdy study of the burden of both art and adolescence and a wonderfully evocative treatise on how we imprint ourselves on the world and learn to survive in that tumultuous wake.
Though a few are not fully realized, in general these poems balance the dire and dystopian with the joyful and caring, inviting the reader to stay onboard for each new voyage. A collection that should not be missed.
The themes of racism, family, and Black lives could make Sexton’s latest a read-alike for the novels of Jacqueline Woodson. A good addition to any public library’s fiction collection.