Title:Things
to Be Lost (Click Title to order on-line) Author: Lionel Newton Publisher: NAL/Dutton Date Published: January 1996 Format: Trade Paper
Synopsis
The tragic killing of a father by his
12-year-old son lies at the heart of this stunning new novel by the author of Getting
Right with God. In this compelling exploration of the dynamics of an African-American
family, Newton writes with tenderness and sadness, hope and irony, of the shaken but
enduring dreams of a once all-American family.
Review for Publishers Weekly
The disintegration of a middle-class
African American family is the focus of Newton's second novel, a first-rate follow-up to
his debut work, Getting Right with God. Narrator Randall Roberts is a rising young painter
with a terrible secret: he killed his father when he was 12. Because his family covered up
by claiming that the death was self-inflicted, Randall never served time; his punishment
has been psychic rather than judicial. Outwardly, as we learn through the extensive
flashbacks that comprise most of the novel, the Roberts family had seemed ideal. ``Ma''
was a community activist and educator, involved in a number of important causes, while
``Dad,'' to whom Randall was devoted, was a deacon at their local church. The trouble
began when Dad started to spend increasing amounts of time alone in their attic, writing
wild religious ramblings he claimed were inspired directly by God. From then, the family
rode a downward spiral. Randall's sister fell in with a bad crowd and committed a savage
act of violence; Ma, pushed by Dad, lost her moral compass; and, finally, Randall took his
father's life, destroying the family unit in order to save it. In another's hands, all
this could be relentlessly depressing, but Newton tells his tale in spritely prose, with a
light hand and much humor, evincing a fine ear for dialogue. In the process, he
accomplishes what Nabokov did for pedophilia in Lolita, making a patricide an
understandable act with which readers can empathize, if not wholly approve. (Feb.)