KISSING THE ROADKILL BACK TO LIFE
In this moving, sophisticated, and often humorous novel, Gary Almeter artfully crafts a group portrait of several families using the finest of details in seemingly mundane encounters and everyday events.
It’s 1982 and Gloria Winegar, a Brown University librarian, discovers that there aren’t many drawbacks to having an affair with JFK, Jr., a Brown senior. When she learns she’s pregnant with his baby, she tells no one but her best friend who shepherds through childbirth. They leave the baby, a son, on the steps of a convent. The novel chronicles the next few decades of both Gloria and her son, who gets adopted by the most normal family in Massachusetts. How he learns who he is; how he discovers his mother; and what they each should or must do with their new knowledge is masterfully and beautifully written in a story that is a little bit espionage novel; a little bit bildungsroman; and a little bit historical fiction; all culminating in a beautiful literary sketch of a family. The book imagines the pre-public life of JFK Jr. and examines how much we know about him, and people in general, is illusory.
It is the story of identity, pedigree, blue collar versus Ivy League sensibilities, celebrity, authenticity, family, and self-care. It’s about how small things evolve into big things. It is a novel about nature versus nurture. It is a modern telling story of Arthurian legend and the mythic doomed (and triumphant) heroes who populate our world.
Alternative Historical Fiction/ 978-1-956692-18-1/ June 14, 2022
In this moving, sophisticated, and often humorous novel, Gary Almeter artfully crafts a group portrait of several families using the finest of details in seemingly mundane encounters and everyday events.
It’s 1982 and Gloria Winegar, a Brown University librarian, discovers that there aren’t many drawbacks to having an affair with JFK, Jr., a Brown senior. When she learns she’s pregnant with his baby, she tells no one but her best friend who shepherds through childbirth. They leave the baby, a son, on the steps of a convent. The novel chronicles the next few decades of both Gloria and her son, who gets adopted by the most normal family in Massachusetts. How he learns who he is; how he discovers his mother; and what they each should or must do with their new knowledge is masterfully and beautifully written in a story that is a little bit espionage novel; a little bit bildungsroman; and a little bit historical fiction; all culminating in a beautiful literary sketch of a family. The book imagines the pre-public life of JFK Jr. and examines how much we know about him, and people in general, is illusory.
It is the story of identity, pedigree, blue collar versus Ivy League sensibilities, celebrity, authenticity, family, and self-care. It’s about how small things evolve into big things. It is a novel about nature versus nurture. It is a modern telling story of Arthurian legend and the mythic doomed (and triumphant) heroes who populate our world.
Alternative Historical Fiction/ 978-1-956692-18-1/ June 14, 2022
In this moving, sophisticated, and often humorous novel, Gary Almeter artfully crafts a group portrait of several families using the finest of details in seemingly mundane encounters and everyday events.
It’s 1982 and Gloria Winegar, a Brown University librarian, discovers that there aren’t many drawbacks to having an affair with JFK, Jr., a Brown senior. When she learns she’s pregnant with his baby, she tells no one but her best friend who shepherds through childbirth. They leave the baby, a son, on the steps of a convent. The novel chronicles the next few decades of both Gloria and her son, who gets adopted by the most normal family in Massachusetts. How he learns who he is; how he discovers his mother; and what they each should or must do with their new knowledge is masterfully and beautifully written in a story that is a little bit espionage novel; a little bit bildungsroman; and a little bit historical fiction; all culminating in a beautiful literary sketch of a family. The book imagines the pre-public life of JFK Jr. and examines how much we know about him, and people in general, is illusory.
It is the story of identity, pedigree, blue collar versus Ivy League sensibilities, celebrity, authenticity, family, and self-care. It’s about how small things evolve into big things. It is a novel about nature versus nurture. It is a modern telling story of Arthurian legend and the mythic doomed (and triumphant) heroes who populate our world.
Alternative Historical Fiction/ 978-1-956692-18-1/ June 14, 2022
Praise for KISSING THE ROADKILL BACK TO LIFE
Almeter's shimmering debut novel is about laughter, heartbreak, longing, belonging and self-discovery. One of its great themes is authenticity - about just being who you are and doing the best you can during our short time here. Like people you know, the characters are complex and do things you wonder about - you'll find yourself rooting for a woman who abandons a child on the steps of a convent - and the story itself is simultaneously warm, raw, profane, hilarious. So much of it reflects the weird and random events that make up our lives - one small gem among many near the end of the novel: "It's like that thing at weddings when the bride's co-worker dances with the groom's great uncle and you just wonder how and why these people ever happened to be in the same room together and you celebrate and revel in the fact that they are." That is ... so good. And a taste of what makes this book such a great read. It's not a long book, less than 300 pages, but its heart is epic in scope and spirit - really like life itself.
— NYC Reviewer
Using equal measures of wit, suspense, and precise illustration, the author suspensefully narrates a story in which a sheltered young woman from upstate New York goes on the journey of a lifetime. Hard to put down!
— Elliott Driscoll
About GARY M. ALMETER
Gary M. Almeter is a writer and attorney who lives in Baltimore, Maryland with his wife, three children, and two dogs, Dave and Mixly. He is the author of the memoir The Emperor of Ice-Cream.
