Description
"For Avery Cullins-- library archivist, one- time teenage runaway, and gay man from a small Southern town--"family" means a live-in boyfriend and a surly turtle. But when his father, a renowned nuclear physicist, commits suicide, Avery's decade-long estrangement with his mother, who now suffers from dementia, comes to an end. With his boyfriend's help, Avery takes custody of his mother and, in a rented U-Haul, the trio heads cross country, back to an apartment in Cleveland and an uncertain future. The journey soon becomes a pilgrimage into the past as Avery sifts through his mother's mementos and a story of love, family, and loss emerges as his parents make a home, lose a child, and test the boundaries of marital love in the 1970s. Meanwhile, Avery must confront his own struggle with a mother who doesn't recognize him and a lover who, despite his cries to the contrary, is growing older, closer, and more domestic" --
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For Avery Cullins—library archivist, former teenage runaway, and gay man from a small Southern town—”family” means a live-in boyfriend and a surly turtle. But when his father, a renowned nuclear physicist, commits suicide, Avery’s decade-long estrangement from his mother, now hobbled following a stroke, comes to a skidding halt. With his boyfriend’s help, Avery takes custody of his mother and the trio heads cross country in a rented U-Haul, back to an apartment in Cleveland and an uncertain future. Their journey soon becomes a pilgrimage into the past when Avery begins sifting through his mother’s mementos. What emerges is a story of family, love, and loss as his parents made a home, lost a child, and tested the boundaries of marital love in the 1970s. Meanwhile, in today’s uncertain social landscape, Avery must confront his own struggle with a mother who doesn’t recognize him and a lover who seeks to claim him for his own.
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