Pump Up Your Book Presents Latitudes: A Story of Coming Home Virtual Book Tour Review

Tweet

About Anthony Caplan
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.
You can find him at http://www.anthonycaplanwrites.com/

Win a Copy of Latitudes: the Story of Coming Home

Click here at BlessTheir Hearts to enter the giveaway.

Latitudes - A Story of Coming Home by Anthony Caplan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book was very difficult for me to get into.  I struggled to connect with the characters and the story line, and I will say up front that this is probably not my kind of book.  Much of the story did not grab my attention, but it's not the author's fault in any way.  It is just my personal preference and not necessarily my cup of tea.

I did enjoy the little historical and cultural references that the author interjected into the story.  I had never considered the difficulties and even social stigma of divorce in the 1970's.  I can't imagine being separated from your mother (because she was living in another country) and not seeing her again for many years.  And then discovering that the situation may not have been what you thought it was.

Thankfully there were no bedroom scenes in this, and the profanity was relatively mild.  It was a quick read for sure, and I am happy to say that at least I somewhat connected with Will.  I was glad that in spite of everything, he was generally at the top of the class and well-liked.

I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.  I was not financially compensated, and all opinions are 100 percent mine.

View all my reviews

About Latitudes; A Story of Coming Home
LATITUDES – A story of one boy overcoming dysfuntion, 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 charts the birth pangs of a quest for self and soul — from a tropical childhood to a coming of age on the road.
Purchase the e-book format or book format at Amazon
Read the 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.

To follow the entire tour, click here.