American Family
By Robert Crooke
iUniverse, Inc., 340 pages, $20.95

Once in a while, we are privileged to read a novel that not only affords us the opportunity to reflect on significant events in our country’s history but also engages and sustains our interest by providing us with an exciting and suspenseful story.  Bridgewater, CT, resident Robert Crooke has accomplished just that in his stunning debut novel, American Family.

It is in the early aftermath of September 11^th, as America lay stunned and shattered by the World Trade Center attacks, that 64-year-old Tom Gannon finds himself returning to Garrison, New York, to bury his mother.  Having fled the United States during another dark time in America’s history, Tom has lived in Europe since 1954.

That was the year his world was suddenly turned upside down by tragic and unforeseen events that would forever change his life.  American Family is Tom Gannon’s recollection of those events.

Robert Crooke’s American Family is the poignant story of the Gannon family in 1950’s America.  The novel portrays a time in America’s past characterized by fear and prejudice, political corruption and social injustice.

It is an America in which people like Tom’s father, Joe Gannon, pay the ultimate price for attempting to effect social change.  Joe Gannon believed that the world could be a better place and endeavored to make it so, even though the pursuit of his beliefs cost him dearly and brought heartache to his family.

Robert Crooke paints a vivid picture of American society in the 1950’s, a time when Americans everywhere were given cause to question one another’s allegiance to the United States.  During this time, the McCarthy Senate Investigations and the House Committee on Un-American Activities ruined the lives of numerous citizens who were falsely branded as Communists.

This is the climate of fear in which Joe Gannon, who was accused of “subversive affiliations” himself, tries to champion the cause of under-privileged black Americans through the development of a low income housing project in Harlem.

His project is met with tremendous opposition, perhaps most ironically by Charles Stannard, the father of Tom’s girlfriend, although it is not known to Tom until much later in the story just how serious Stannard’s opposition to his father’s project is.

Joe’s worst opponent, however, is much closer to home, for it is his father, Hank Gannon, who has secretly plotted against the project’s success.  Hank’s true nature is but one of the many distressing discoveries Tom Gannon makes throughout the novel.

At the beginning of his story, it is clear that Tom Gannon doesn’t understand the powerful forces that are in play all around him.  He is young and nave and self-centered, refusing to see the painful reality of life.  Tom is unwilling to connect the dots until it is too late for the truth he discovers to make any difference.

In American Family, young Tom Gannon is forced to experience the very real adult world of greed, betrayal, abuse, bigotry, and hatred.  It is a powerful and tragic life lesson, and one which ultimately changes the course of his destiny.

Tom’s story is one of loss and sorrow, but it is also the story of growth and understanding.  The novel touches upon the themes of good versus evil, the value of a moral perspective, and the importance of defending the less fortunate.  It is the story of family relationships and the struggles that often accompany those relationships.  But it is Tom’s dramatic quest for the truth that makes American Family the true thriller that it is.

Robert Crooke gives the reader a compelling and suspenseful tale in American Family.  We are drawn into the mystery that surrounds his father’s disappearance, as Tom uncovers the ugly secrets and lies that lurk unsuspectingly beneath the surface of his once unsullied life.

We will not soon forget Tom’s frantic efforts to find out, at any cost, what really happened to his father.  And it is literally a race to the death when Tom faces down his father’s enemy in his final act of retribution.

American Family should solidly establish its author as one of today’s talented writers of fiction.  American Family is available through www.iUniverse.com.