A Son Comes Home (ebook)

Argumento de A Son Comes Home (ebook)

A Son Comes Home tells a story of an extraordinary and life-changing summer in the life of an American Family. The main character, Chris LaRue, is a graduate student and college instructor in his mid-twenties, who has drifted no only from his heavenly Father, but also from his earthly parents. Early in the book he returns to Indiana to spend the summer with them after being estranged from them for two years. It is a summer in which he will confront his former fiancee, Beth, but also new family crises, including his father's grave illness and his sister's unwanted pregnancy. Chris is still haunted by the death of his older brother David two years before. His relationship with his brother had been a complex mixture of closeness and rivalry. David was his father's favorite. David loved Chris but also betrayed him during the final days before his death, and he left secrets behind Chris feels obligated to keep, but that continue to spread their poison as time goes by. Back home again, Chris must decide how much of the truth he can bear to tell. This work from Bentz is ideal for teachers and professors to use due to the writing style employing multiple narrators who have distinctive voices worthy of study. The plot is intricately constructed, the symbolism is multi-layered, and the book makes subtle but significant use of the biblical story of the prodigal son. The novel is also powerful in showing the dynamics of family relationships at many levels.

No one witnessed what David did on that bend on Culpepper Highway. The accident could be reconstructed only be examining the tire tracks and skid marks and the demolished car. David made it through one of the worst curves on the road, a turn so sharp it was nearly one hundred eighty degrees. Despite all the glaring warning signs, David likely drove the car two or three times the speed limit around that curve. There is no room for error on that part of the road. A driver who misjudges will skid over a gravel embankment and end up in the trees. David had driven that stretch countless times, sometimes with me in the car. On many nights since his death I have awakened haunted by the same dream: David and I hurtling around that bend together. I feel the car turning, my shoulder smashing against the door, but instead of straightening again, the car, in a surrealism of dreams, continues to spin, as if it has been picked up by a tornado. I feel the frightening loss of control of my body as it is tossed from side to side. I catch sight of David beside me. He is smiling! Then the bone-shattering thud of the car crashing to the ground, and I cannot catch my breath. I wake up gasping for air. David's death overpowered my grievances against him. I was justified in my anger toward him, for he had finally snared me in his trap of betrayal and deceit, but I had to swallow my rage whole. David's death transformed him, in the minds of everyone we knew, into my perfect brother. He was forever frozen in his youth, beauty, talent, and charisma, while in my family's eyes, I lived on as a pale reminder of him.0