Book Review of Latitudes: A Story of Coming Home

Book Review of Latitudes: A Story of Coming Home

Sponsored by Bewitching Book Tour

 Welcome to Books, Books, and More Books.  I am pleased to share my review of this book with you.  Thank you for visiting and please come again.

File Size: 384 KB

Print Length: 223 pages

Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0981516637

Publisher: Hope Mountain Press (June 27, 2012)

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

Language: English

ASIN: B008FQG7IK

Blurb : 

A story of one boy overcoming dysfunction, dislocation and distance…

When Father and Mother, a highflying young American lawyer and his party-hard bride, fall prey to the self-destructive lure of alcohol and sexual liberation, Will and his sisters pay the price in divorce and kidnappings that take them back and forth between the rain forest hideaways of coastal Latin America and the placid suburbs of Long Island. Will identifies with the oppressed workers laboring in his father’s fast food restaurant and longs for American freedom. Father remarries the daughter of a local aristocrat, and Will is sent off to the hothouse world of a New England boarding school.

Swimming in a sea of Fair Isle sweaters and LL Bean boots, Will discovers a core of resilience in himself that allows him to survive, thrive, and ultimately embrace the flawed and varied worlds he inhabits. Will reconnects with his Mother, sinking into a New York City world of Irish bars and one night stands he cannot save her from. With a little help from friends, and a high school Shakespeare class taught by the school’s closeted gay athletic trainer, Will begins to see the possibility of finding his true path. Latitudes chart the birth pangs of a quest for self and soul — from a tropical childhood to a coming of age on the road.

About the Author:

Anthony Caplan is an independent writer, teacher and homesteader in northern New England. He has worked at various times as a shrimp fisherman, environmental activist, journalist, taxi-driver, builder, window-washer, and telemarketer. Currently, Caplan is working on restoring a 150 year old farmstead where he and his family tend sheep and chickens, grow most of their own vegetables, and have started a small apple orchard from scratch.

Contacts:

You can purchase the book in kindle or book format at Amazon.
Follow along on the Latitudes Virtual Book Tour at Pump Up Your Book
Read the blog at The New Remembrance
https://twitter.com/anthonycaplan1
http://www.anthonycaplanwrites.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Anthony-Caplan/348326781857597

The video clip I found here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2014783923/latitudes-a-story-of-coming-home

http://www.thenewremembrance.blogspot.com/

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2014783923/latitudes-a-story-of-coming-home/widget/video.html" frameborder="0"> </iframe>

Excerpt:

This time of uncertainty came to an end before it could gel into something, a pattern, a new beginning or different stamp to the days. It was one day in late August, an ordinary moment that would not have remained in his memory, much as the days that preceded it. In Will’s mind he and his sisters, their new neighborhood friends, seemed born full-blown in the backyard in the midst of some forgotten game. He was immersed again, as in the swimming pool on Margarita Island, in his inner thoughts even with the swirl of kids and dogs and the sun passing through the bright blue sky, as two cars pulled up on the street, low-slung, long and dark, their red brake lights warning to stop and look. Out stepped four or five men in pale trench coats. As they walked up the driveway, Alexa gasped.

"Father," she said. Will had recognized him at almost the same moment.

"Father," he repeated and broke into a run as Father smiled and held out his arms. The other men stopped in their tracks. Father hugged the four children. It was unusual, but exciting that he’d come all this way to rejoin them. The other men from the two cars must have been his friends.

"How about an ice cream?" he asked. This seemed unusual and exciting also. They had never known him to offer treats, but maybe this was his way of breaking the ice, start in on a new footing.

"Sure," Will said, and Alexa agreed, eager as he was, speaking for all three girls. They all four sat in the backseat of the back car. Father sat in the front while another man drove. As the cars sped away, the babysitter emerged from the house and saw a knot of neighborhood children walking down the sidewalk, but not Will or his sisters. Breathing hard, panic struck. She ran back inside and grabbed the telephone.

Book Review:

            This was a hard book to read, but one that I think every person should read before bringing children into a marriage.  Divorce can be appropriate for adults, and sometimes children are better off… such as when there is physical, emotional, or verbal abuse.  However often divorce, especially when the parents use the children as battle tools, can be devastating psychologically.

            I have worked as a custody mediator and I know that parents who keep the children out of divorce issues and work together for the best of their children have children who survive the best.

            While this book is emotionally hard to read, it is well written and deeply moving.  I highly recommend it.  I give this book 4.5 out of 5 clouds.

This product or book may have been distributed for review; this in no way affects my opinions or reviews.