The Barrowfields

January 30, 2017
In this charming, absorbing, and assured debut novel, a young man tries to make sense of his father’s life and the passions that unite them—namely, a devotion to literature and a rueful nostalgia for their Appalachian homeland. In the novel’s sweeping opening, the narrator, Henry Aster, describes how his father, also named Henry, briefly escaped his hometown of Old Buckram, N.C., to attend college and pursue soaring literary ambitions, convinced that “inside him was something magnificent.” After marrying and gaining a law degree, though, the elder Henry learned that his mother is ill, and he returned to Old Buckram, where, following a bout of professional success, he bought a sinister-looking hilltop mansion known as “the vulture house.” There, he raised his family and toiled away endlessly on a mysterious, Casaubon-esque work of literature. Younger Henry relates all this years later, sometime in the ’90s, after having followed a very similar trajectory: he too, after gaining a law degree, has found himself back in Old Buckram. But his father is gone, the rest of his family is in shambles, and his girlfriend—the aptly if cutely named Story—has her own family problems to sort out. Lewis evokes his settings beautifully, and his prose is bracingly erudite. This debut has the ability to fully immerse its readers.

December 15, 2016
Amid family tragedy, a young man flees the peculiar home of his youth only to return years later. Thomas Wolfe may have warned that "you can't go home again," but the Asters of Old Buckram, North Carolina, apparently didn't get the message. The narrator's father, Henry, is a strange fit for this "achromatic town high in the belly of the Appalachian Mountains." A boozy and bookish writer, he's returned to his hometown to continue crafting his magnum opus and raise his family in a sprawling, eerie estate built into the side of a mountain. His son, also Henry, tells his dad's story and, mostly, his own: from his father's permanent abandonment of the family to his own abandonment of Old Buckram for college and law school to his eventual return. The writing is pleasant and often funny, and Henry's memories of his youth are rich and complex (the town preacher's attempted public burning of a copy of As I Lay Dying, thwarted by Henry the elder, is particularly memorable). The characters, including young Henry's sister, Threnody, and his eventual love interest, Story, are well-drawn, and Lewis is a master of creating a sense of place (the title refers to a mysterious plot of land in Old Buckram where "nothing of natural origin will grow except a creeping gray moss"). Ultimately, though, the story is too unfocused to hold readers' attention. Each of Henry's reminiscences, on its own, is interesting, but there are too many anecdotes for the narrative to pick up steam. Late-in-the-game secondary plotlines and twists only further dilute an otherwise powerful story. Promising but unfocused, this finely wrought debut novel would've benefited from more ruthless editing.

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March 1, 2017

This debut novel is built around a house, an old, gothic, iron-and-glass structure far up in the Appalachian Mountains. The house seems to have a dreary past that haunts its new residents, the family of Henry Aster. His father, an aspiring author, grew up in these same hardscrabble mountains but unlike everyone else always had a book in hand. After college and marriage, he returns to the mysterious mansion on the hill, and his son Henry becomes the narrator of the story. After long struggles, fathers and sons and families come apart, and it takes many years and a few crises until any sort of reconciliation can begin. The house and the small town are well rendered in this story, but slight inconsistencies abound. For example, in the late 1950s, father meets mother, who works in an academic library; she's wearing bright green capri pants on the job. Highly unlikely given the time and place; small discrepancies such as this mount and detract from the novel's credibility. VERDICT The devil is in the details in Lewis's first novel, which is wide in scope yet somewhat uneven in pacing and in the particulars.--Susanne Wells, Indianapolis P.L.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2017

Henry Aster, whom readers meet in childhood and follow into young adulthood, tells the story of his family and their path of loss and dysfunction. Living in a gothic mansion high in the mountains of North Carolina, the Asters experience happiness despite a sense of looming tragedy. However, after the death of Henry's grandmother, Henry's father, a brilliant writer and lawyer, spirals into despair and depression-which Henry and the rest of the family don't know how to address. This often dark narrative examines themes such as how children deal with family responsibilities as they mature. Teens will appreciate the complexity of this work and find Henry a genuine, relatable protagonist who makes mistakes and attempts to heal childhood wounds. VERDICT A candid novel that offers an intimate view of the effects of depression on family members, this is a must-read for fans of Pat Conroy or William Faulkner and those who enjoy Southern gothic literature.-April Sanders, Spring Hill College, Mobile, AL

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2017
In his evocative debut about disenchantment and identity, Lewis captures the longing of a southerner separated from his home, his family, and his ambition. As soon as he can, Henry Aster leaves Old Buckram, his hometown of 400 inhabitants tucked away in the North Carolina hills, for Baltimore, where he develops a passion for literature, liquor, and writing. When his mother, Maddy, falls ill, he reluctantly returns to Old Buckram with his pregnant wife, practicing law during the day and furiously writing at night. Their son, also named Henry, grows to admire his father's literary ambitions, even if his bookishness and melancholia perplex him. Following a string of traumatic events, including an attempted book burning, Henry the elder disappears, leaving the younger Henry longing to leave Old Buckram, too. When he does, he faces an indifferent world that's as mystifying as his father. Like fellow North Carolinian Thomas Wolfe, Lewis tackles the conflicting choice between accepting one's roots and rejecting the past, and he does so with grace, wit, and an observant eye.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)