Desecrations by Howie Good

Film noir finds a new home in the well-chosen words of Howie Good. Contemporary living and loathing are given new life through this treatment.Josh Greenwood and his Mom and Dad are walking their neighbors to the corner of 13th and Jefferson after Josh’s 14th birthday party when a careening motorcycle kicks up a rock that kills Bonnie, the mother. But what if the rock killed Tom, the father, instead? Or the accident unfolded differently and Josh was killed? This uplifting tale of middle class family life in America offers all three stories. In Book 1, Tom struggles to cope with single parenthood and tries to woo Elaine, the neighbor at the accident who has a past with a mystery man. Josh and Max, Elaine’s son who doesn’t know that his real father is “somebody”, interfere and grow up until graduation from high school. In Book 2, Bonnie struggles to save Josh from the influences of her petty criminal half-brother, Mitch. Max reacts very differently to learning the identity of his real father and even with the best intentions and efforts of loving mothers things do not turn out well. In Book 3, Tom and Bonnie’s marriage flounders as they struggle to reinvent themselves as non-parents, Max becomes a real player in his father’s presidential campaign and Elaine… Well we can’t tell you the rest. In Book 4, (surprise!) the original tragedy is averted. How much do we really know about anyone?