Home, by Matt Dunn, is one of those perfectly decent books that just misses. This may be me and my tastes instead of the book itself as I was unable to get past the first couple pages of another book by Mr. Dunn, The Ex-Boyfriend’s Handbook. I probably wouldn’t have finished Home either, except it came from Net Galley for a review.
There is nothing wrong with Home. The writing is decent, main characters are well-done, setting is interesting, and the plot uses a universal conflict.
The primary story concerns Josh, who left the sad seaside town of Derton at 18 to pursue college and dreams of writing, plus his parents, his best friend, his former and almost-former girlfriends and his old high school nemesis. Josh’s dad is dying of lung cancer and Josh has left London to come home, fully intending to stay a week or so then return to the bright lights and his advertising job.
While in Derton Josh breaks up with his current girl friend (we all cheer at this point), he loses his job, finds the girl he dumped at 18, realizes he should have stayed with her. Eventually it works out but the process is a bit tedious.
Josh doesn’t believe in anything except that he doesn’t want to live in Derton. That has driven him for 18 years, but a desire to flee is not a desire to live, and being against something doesn’t tell you what you are for. He doesn’t like the superficial glitter that his girlfriend and boss embody (best line in the book describes his girlfriend’s closet as a “shrine to Jimmy Choo”), but he doesn’t know what to replace it with.
Josh stumbles around the emotional minefield of his dad’s illness and death, his fears and loneliness. It takes him the full novel to do what we readers on page 3 see is the right course.
Overall I’d give this a solid 3 stars but don’t read it if you don’t like books where people are their own worst enemies.
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