Greetings from Asbury Park

Karen Chilton’s and Will Damron’s superb characterizations enhance Turtel’s inventive debut, winner of the 2020 Faulkner Society Award for Best Novel. Damron captures the complex, somewhat unsympathetic, Casey Larkin, whose actions are described in first-person, while Chilton narrates the remaining chapters, vividly portraying the cast of characters that are presented in third-person. Troubled Davey Larkin is the legitimate son and main heir of recently deceased patriarch Joseph, an alcoholic who fathered Casey out of wedlock. Abandoned by his mother at age 11, Casey moved into the Larkin oceanfront mansion. The brothers are stunned to learn Joseph fathered another child, Gabriella, a college student staying for the summer with her mother in a home willed to Casey. As Casey and Gabriella’s relationship deepens, Turtel also explores issues of racism and classism and questions of sexual orientation with the help of secondary characters, a mix of summer and year-round residents of Asbury Park, NJ—the oceanside setting so richly conjured it may be the most powerfully drawn character of all.