Michael Baron’s The Journey Home is a very personal work of fiction based upon the author’s parents’ marriage and love for one another.
Joseph awakens with no memory of who he is and embarks on a road trip to jog his memory with the help of a young teen, Will. Meanwhile, Antoinette is an elderly woman living in an assisted living facility who is slowly losing her grip on reality and living in her past.
“He recognized some of the cities, not enough to identify with any of them, but enough to know that he’d heard of them before. He had a feeling that he’d been an avid baseball fan, but at gunpoint, he wouldn’t have been able to name the team that played in Chicago. It was as though his memory were playing an elaborate game of peek-a-boo with him, revealing part of itself for an instant before hiding away again.” (Page 44)
Baron’s prose lulls readers into an alternate universe as they watch the struggles of these characters to find their way home. More than the journey home, this novel deals with the harsh realities of old age and Alzheimer’s disease and the toll that takes on not only caregivers, but also family members. Another enjoyable aspect of the novel is the detailed cooking descriptions as Warren, Antoinette’s son, tries to discover a new path after losing his wife and his corporate job.
The Journey Home is part love story and part mystery that will leave readers guessing. Baron creates characters that tease and please and who struggle with discovering themselves and where their true home lies. The journey home is long and full of bumps in the road, but it is one of self-discovery and the call of one’s soul mate.
Thanks to The Story Plant for sending me a copy for review.
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{ 11 comments }
The book does sound good, but I don’t think I could read it right now.
Its a good book, but there is a degree of sadness that you may not want to be around right now. I enjoyed this one, but liked When You Went Away better. Baron does loss and love really well.
I still haven’t read When You Went Away. Did the storylines in this book ever converge? I know you were wondering about that.
They do converge unexpectedly. I didn’t talk about it because its so close to the end and writing about it would have ruined the book for people…no spoilers here.
I’ve never read anything by this author but this sounds good!
This sounds like quite an emotional and interesting book. I will have to look for it. Thanks for the great review, Serena.
This book sounds good to me, please enter me in this contest.
this one sounds pretty good…I always enjoy reading about someone finding their soul mate!
I also havent read this author but would like to. Thank you for highlighting his books.
The idea of losing your memory scares me because it might very well become a reality for me one day since several people in my family had Alzheimer’s Disease.
My grandfather is just showing signs of that, so I hear you.
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