Synopsis
A wonderful story of what family means, of the flesh-level pain of sibling rivalry, and the discovery of love. It is a fantastic and beautiful tapestry of some of the most imaginative and precise prose writing going on in America today. Toby Olson stands tall among the handful of writers I most admire and respect.—Richard Wiley
Write A Letter to Billy is a delectably complicated maze that kept me spellbound from start to finish. Only the most sophisticated of writers could manage to combine the seriousness of a quest for identity and meaning with the intensity of a thriller, not to mention an excursion into deep-sea diving and the resort life of southern California. Once again, Toby Olson has written a terrific novel full of peril and surprise, offering startling revelations and sudden expansions of the heart and mind."—Lynne Sharon Schwartz
United with a long-lost teenage daughter, a retired Navy underwater repair specialist investigates a mysterious list his father had written just before his death. Some of the items are crossed off, but one of the unfinished tasks haunts him: "Write letter to Billy." What had his father planned to tell him? What he learns changes his life forever.
Influenced by D.H. Lawrence, William Faulkner, and Charles Dickens, Toby Olson’s pointed examination of memory and consciousness illustrates how the unraveling of external mystery leads to self discovery.
Toby Olson, winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction, has published eight books of fiction and twenty-two books of poetry. His work has appeared in over two hundred newspapers, magazines, and anthologies. Olson’s novels include At Sea, Dorit in Lesbos, Utah, and The Woman Who Escaped from Shame. He lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and North Truro, Massachusetts.
Reviews
PEN/Faulkner winner Olson (Dorit in Lesbos) attempts to marry mystery, self-exploration and self-discovery in this overstuffed novel set in California in the early 1980s. After his discharge from the navy, 40-year-old Bill, a diver, plans to spend a year in the Antilles. But a letter from an old fling living in Racine, Wis., informs him that he is the father of her 15-year-old daughter, JenDand Jen wants to meet him. Bill was himself adopted by an insatiably curious inventor and his beautiful wife, a theatrical ingenue, and family ties are important to him. To get to know Jen better, he decides to take her on a road trip to California. Once there, they stop in El Monte, where Bill was raised, in order to go through some of his father's things that have been in storage for 15 years. A quick perusal of the boxes and crates reveals a mysterious list written by his father relating to the unsolved drowning death of Susan Rennert, a hotel chambermaid. Jen helps Bill investigate his father's past, touring newspaper morgues and old forgotten sections of California cities, working through his father's list. In the process, the two become very close, forcing Bill to reflect on how empty his life has been. He realizes, too, that he never really knew his parents, as he talks to people who did not hold them in the same high esteem he did. Although the mystery is solved in the end, the plot depends too heavily upon coincidence to truly satisfy. Olson also awkwardly introduces elements of the supernatural and weighs down the narrative with long, drawn-out descriptive passages. Although the novel falls short as a work of self-discovery or suspense, however, it succeeds as an unusual investigation of the nature of fatherhood. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
When a book begins with the sentence "It's a long story," you might be fooled into thinking that it will cut immediately to the chase, with a minimal mincing of words. Not so in this "self-discovery" mystery by a PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author. Yet Olson wrings a satisfying emotional product from his characters, as protagonist Bill, a retired-but-still-young U.S. Navy diver, discovers a cryptic list left behind by his dead father of clues he ties to a past unsolved murder. He also discovers that his youthful fling with promiscuous WAVE Carol has produced a daughter, Jennifer, now 15 years old. Bill and Jennifer team up for a long-overdue dad-daughter vacation to bond belatedly, and together they decipher the list of clues (save one), ultimately solving the complex mystery. Suitable for all libraries.DMargee Smith, Grace A. Dow Memorial Lib., Midland, MI
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
This is an odd but powerful story, overcomplicated and occasionally melodramatic, but it draws readers in and holds them. Bill is a navy man, just retired, reacquainting himself with the papers and objects he'd stored away from his adoptive parents, both now dead, and with Jen, the teenage daughter of a long-ago liaison. Bill takes Jen with him to California, where she can learn scuba diving while he rustles through his parents' detritus. A list Bill finds of things to do, written by his dad, captures his attention--the ninth item is the letter of the title. Things begin to surface: not only Bill's memories of his parents and some unanswered questions but a hotel maid's suicide and some old property that seem to be related to the list. All of this swirls together in Bill's relationship with the artless, eager Jen, who is learning to be a daughter to his tentative fathering. A huge denouement with a literal evil twin is perhaps a bit too Dickensian, but questions resolve themselves in unexpected and satisfying ways. GraceAnne DeCandido
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