Synopsis:

Grief opens doors, sometimes unexpected ones, as Caroline Davies, a 29-year-old event planner, is about to discover. In Chicago to bury her father, Caroline has orchestrated the funeral down to the make-up on his face. Why then does she feel so blank? After indulging in a few too many--strong drinks, harsh words, taboo kissess--on the night of the wake, Caroline runs away. Her partner in crime is 58-year-old Virgil Harris, her uncle, who's on the run from secrets of his own.

Book Excerpt:

That night of the wake, my father in a mahogany casket in his study, the house smelling of whiskey, of freshly showered skin and dry cleaning, sliced lemons and horseradish, of votive candles and furtive cigarettes, een a hint of marijuana, which I wanted to follow after days comparing costs, chipping down the price of the monument, selecting flowers and lining up eulogizers, after so much death and detail, I deserved a drink.

I deserved more than that, actually, and I got it, but first of all I got drunk.

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Topics/Categories:

Arabian horses, Cancer, heroin, New Orleans, Road Trips, Texas

Genre:

General Novel

Type of Work:

Novel

Publishers:

Carroll & Graf

Purchase From:

Powell's City of Books

Original Publish Date:

2003-04-01