Finding Caruso

Kim Barnes' FINDING CARUSO (2003) was a serendipitous find at a Goodwill store. A first edition like-new hardback, cover price $23.95, with an Ollie's sticker on back for $1.99, and another minor sticker on the front for 99¢. Oh, the humiliations and injustices of the writing life and the publishing world.

Because this is a damn good book. Set in 1958-59 Snake Junction, Idaho, where the Snake meets the Clearwater, it chronicles the coming-of-age of Buddy Hope, just 17 when he meets the mysterious, much older temptress, Irene. Buddy and his brother, Lee (24), are "immigrants" from Oklahoma, after both their parents were killed in a car crash. Their father had been a poor sharecropper and an abusive drunk, so there's a pertinent backstory show more for them. Lee is a charismatic, chick magnet, country singer who forms a band and brings new prosperity to The Stables, the roadhouse where they settle in. A woman in the band disappears. An Indian named Wolfchild is arrested. Forest fires are all around in Idaho that summer, drawing ever closer. Buddy feels Irene slipping away from him (as her backstory behind to emerge), and becomes desperate to keep her. He clashes with Lee. Indeed, everything begins to heat up as the story progresses. There is sex, violence, murder, horses, goat roping (yeah, really) and more in this compelling tale of the mid-century modern West. It is a book with a great story and great characters that I found hard to put down. And yet, its pristine condition and multiple markdowns. What the hell! Well, I'm glad I found it. Bravo, Ms Barnes, even if I am twenty-some years late. Very highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less

Within the first two chapters of Finding Caruso I found myself calling Kim Barnes a favorite author. Despite the fact that the first chapter started off raw and violent; as shocking as a bucket of ice cold language, I loved the way she described the landscape, the emotion, the family structure. A mother timid and protective, a father despairing and drunken, brothers bound by love and loyalty. After a tragedy the brothers make their way to Idaho. Music is what keeps them going, but brotherly blood is what saves them.
It's also the bittersweet tale of sibling rivalry. One brother being the older, better looking, the more talented, the one used to getting everything while the other looks on, burning with jealousy, brimming with pride. But, show more what happens when the tides turn and baby brother gets a stroke of luck, wins out? show less

Enjoyable read of 17 year old whose family was disfunctional and poor who follows his brother to small town Idaho where he is restless, trying to grow up and figure out life. He meets and falls in love with a women twice his age who awakes more than the sexual side of him, but the affair is bittersweet with secrets and complexity. Written somewhat in the style of Norman MacLean and James Lee Burke with an unsettling somewhat dismal view of life.

If you choose to read this book start with chapter 2. The description of animal abuse in chaper 1 is horrid. The rest of the book was managable, but it is not one I would suggest others read.