About
the Book:
When
his wife, Angel, is killed in a head-on collision, Gomez Gomez feels
he can't go on – so he doesn't. He spends his days in the bushes
next to the crash site drinking Thunderbird wine, and his nights
cradling a coffee can full of Angel's ashes. Slow, sure suicide, with
no one for company but the snakes, Elvis's ghost, and a strange kid
named Bones.
Across
town, Father Jake Morales plays it safe, haunted by memories of the
woman he left behind, hiding his guilt, loss, and love behind a thick
wall of cassock and ritual. Then a shady business deal threatens the
town – and his good friend Gomez Gomez – and Father Jake can't
just stand by and watch. But what happens when the rescuer is the one
in need of saving?
The
Beautiful Ashes of Gomez Gomez is quirky, heartfelt, and deeply
human. Lives and hopes collide in the town of Paradise, stretching
across decades and continents in this epic story of forgiveness,
redemption, and love.
You
can read an excerpt here.
My Review:
It
took a long time for this book to grab me. It was not until about the
last 40 pages I was really happy I was reading it. While I
appreciated the ending and was moved by it, I am not sure it made up
for the slow pace of the rest of the book. I just could not find the
characters engaging. They almost seemed liked caricatures of real
people. Each of the characters was flawed but almost to a
debilitating extreme. And the plot seemed absent, void of structure
for much of the novel. The story just seemed to ramble along for
quite some time.
I
was not amazed at Storm's writing style. The novel seems to be
something like magical realism with talking snakes and the ghost of
Elvis appearing often. Some of the writing was lyrical in almost an
other worldly way but the pace was slow. For much of the novel I
wondered if something really life changing would ever happen.
And
there were a couple of pet peeves in this novel. One is a dream Gomez
Gomez had. We don't find out it is a dream for some time. I thought
it was a flash back at first. I don't like it when an author does not
identify a dream right off. And then there was the confusing way of
addressing Paradise Chief of Police Matthias Galt. Sometimes he was
identified as Officer Galt in the text, not just in dialogue. I can
see people referring to him in various ways in dialogue but not the
author doing so in the text.
The
last 40 pages or so of the novel made it into a story of forgiveness,
restored love and new beginnings. Readers who don't mind a rambling
story leading up to that point will appreciate the novel.
My
rating: 4/5 stars.
About the Author:
Buck
Storm is a critically acclaimed author and musician whose stories
have found friends around the world. His nonfiction work includes
Finding Jesus in Israel, and Through the Holy Land on the
Road Less Traveled. His novels include The List, The
Light, Truck Stop Jesus, and The Miracle Man. He
and his wife live in North Idaho and have two married children. You
can learn more at www.buckstorm.com and find him on Facebook
(@buckstormauthor), Twitter (@buckstormauthor) and Instagram
(@buckstorm).
Kregel
Publications, 352 pages.
I
received a complimentary digital copy of this book from the
publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review. The rest
of the copy of this post was provided by the publisher.
(My star
ratings: 5-I love it, 4-I like it, 3-It's OK, 2-I don't like it, 1-I
hate it.)
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