Bishop’s resonant follow-up to his 2010 mother-daughter themed
debut, Letter to My Daughter, is set in 1973 in a Louisiana town
eagerly anticipating a celestial event. Alan Broussard, Jr., a newly 14-
year-old bookworm who considers himself to have “no obvious talents,
no great looks, no exceptional humor or intellect or passions,” is
excited about entering high school, though his father is the school’s
resident science teacher and, therefore, a source of embarrassment.
Alan Sr. becomes incrementally obsessed with the impending arrival of
the “comet of the century” Kohoutek, but his son is more interested in
spying on “angelic” Gabriella, the beautiful girl across the canal, with
his new telescope. Bishop’s characterizations of young Alan’s mother,
father, and sister Megan are endearing and their relentless coddling of
their maturing son is wincingly accurate as Christmas Eve, the
projected date for the comet’s sighting, approaches. Meanwhile, the
boy’s infatuation for Gabriella ebbs and flows and ultimately both father
and son come to crushing realizations. More thematically developed
than Bishop’s first novel, this book explores the complexities of a
father-son relationship through science, astronomy, and the growing
pains of adolescence. Agent: Marly Rusoff, Marly Rusoff Literary
Agency. (Aug.)
Reviewed on: 06/24/2013
Release date: 07/30/2013