Gavin Goode

I like the stylized rendition of The Scream on its cover, the opening line, "I don't know why and I don't know how, but I think I died today," and the layering of moral messages within wasn't too heavy-handed. Gavin Goode is 52, happily married to beautiful wife Frankie, with his first grandchild on the way; the day he leaves his comfortable upstate New York home for work, all is right with his world. While the Goode family is victimized by random shootings and high-risk pregnancy, the neighboring Hillmans are buying assault rifles illegally and playing violent video games.

The inclusion of various minor characters of color (emergency doctor, janitor, co-worker) is good but I wish they had been allowed more space and thought; perhaps at least as much as was given the anthropomorphic AK-47 what with his name, history, and expansive point of view. Despite the high level of detail given to cosmetics and fashion, I still figured the writer was a man, when 19-wk pregnant Jenna was able to fit into a pair of non-maternity jeans, and kept showing such dismay at her pregnancy weight gain.

Gavin Goode is creative and compelling writing. This is my first venture into David B. Seaburn’s work. I appreciated his wit and unexpected humor, which helped this book stand out from others.

When middle-aged Gavin Goode becomes the unintended target of a tragic, accidental act of violence, the lives of his family and friends are transformed. Pasts are scrutinized, relationships are re-evaluated and wife Frankie, son Ryan and his wife Jenna are thrown into each others' close company in an unexpected context.

This book is written from multiple perspectives, including close family members, secondary characters and even an inanimate object and the local news. Multiple perspective novels can sometimes be tricky if one voice becomes more compelling than the others, but this is very well-written, with each chapter driving the story as well as giving vital insights into the characters.

Human flaws are explored and handled with great compassion in this novel, and we are shown over and over the small, every day acts of caring. Themes of forgiveness, love and hope are to be found throughout. The slightly harder character assessments are reserved for the background characters, but even the acts contributing to the tragedy are shown as relating to mistakes, entitlement, self-centredness and so on. This isn’t a good versus evil story; it is suggested that the violent act happens because of incremental human failings. This is a psychologically involving, moving story, with beautifully drawn characters.

Gavin Goode is 52 years old and works in insurance. He has a pretty normal life. His wife, Frankie, owns a dress shop. His son, Ryan, has a few failed business attempts under his belt and currently owns an ice cream shop. Ryan and his wife, Jenna, a banker, are expecting their first child. But one morning, Gavin Goode is shot in the head while sitting at his desk at work. And everyone’s life changes.

After the shooting, Gavin doesn’t wake up following surgery. He is on life support in the ICU, but his family visits every day, hoping something will change, that a miracle will happen and Gavin will wake up and return back to normal. As the weeks and months pass, this story follows Gavin’s family and Gavin’s struggling consciousness.

The opening line of this book is “I don’t know how, and I don’t know why, but I think I died today.” This is Gavin’s first realization that his soul, or consciousness, or whatever you may call it, has left his body and he is intent on figuring out what has happened to him. He doesn’t know if he is dead or just hurt really badly. He doesn’t remember at first what happened to him. This book follows each character’s story, so the reader is able to see each one’s different perspective and reactions to the same situations. Typically, I’m not a big fan of having that many different storylines going on, but in this book it works because it’s quite necessary for the reader to know what is going on behind the scenes when they aren’t at the hopsital. Gavin’s mind is trying to figure out who is with him, and why he can’t wake up or move his body. Ryan is completely hopeful that his father is going to wake up. I believe his hope kept him going; he very much felt that he needed his father in his life, needed his advice and someone to talk to. If his hope had died, Ryan wouldn’t have been able to handle it. I liked Ryan as a character, even though after the passage of several months it was hard to see how he could still believe everything would be okay. But his hope is encouraging and helps to mend the bond between him and his mother. Frankie didn’t have much hope from the beginning. She had pretty much resigned herself to the idea that she would never get Gavin back. But she struggles with a lot of guilt over a secret she has been harboring for many years and feeling like she somehow caused this to happen. She loves her husband with all her heart though, and wants him to be okay, especially so she is able to make up for her mistakes and earn his forgiveness. That’s a huge part of the story – Frankie’s need to be forgiven and learning that forgiving herself is just as important.

Frankie’s best friend, Rosemary, was with her when she got the news of Gavin’s accident. Rosemary is a train wreck. She’s addicted to pills and her addiction worsens after the accident, she’s in a horrible, loveless marriage, her son won’t talk to her. She tries to be there for her friend at first, but she’s way too deep in the trenches of her addiction. I had a love-hate relationship with Rosemary. I felt pity and sadness for her; she had an injury which led to her pain pill addiction, which in turn led to her husband resenting her. She is in a loveless marriage and her son will barely talk to her. But she also seems very self-absorbed, even without factoring in the pills.

The story also follows a man named Mr. Hillman and his son, Christopher. Mr. Hillman bought an unregistered AK-47 (named Mikhail, that also had a personality and a “voice” in the story, which I found to be a little odd and it the personality very cliche) at the beginning of the book. Mikhail feels his calling is to be used in war and hates being taken home to sit on a shelf. Fortunately, Mikhail doesn’t narrate very often after the first half of the book. It was weird reading a weapon’s “thoughts”. Mr. Hillman takes Christopher out to practice shooting it, but tells him to keep it a secret from his mother. Mr. Hillman barely hides the gun and doesn’t really seem to know much about how to use it himself. He’s a completely unsafe gun owner. Christopher sees how his father feels about his mother and Mr. Hillman makes him feel bad for wanting to tell her things because she is unwell and it might set her off. Lying to Mrs. Hillman ends up causing a lot of resentment and huge guilt within Christopher throughout the story. I wish I could talk about all of the characters and go more in-depth but this review would be way too long. Seaburn’s character development for this story was phenomenal.

This book had the mother of all plot twists! I’m not going to explain any more about it, because I don’t want to give any spoilers, but I did not see this one coming. I read that paragraph about 5 times in a row because it was so good I wanted to savor it. I also really loved the way the author was able to use a lot of humor in such a tragic story. It made it feel like a more lighthearted read, rather than depressing and deeply sad.

This book was an amazing story of hope, relationships, guilt, jealousy, forgiveness, addiction, faith, and overcoming a huge tragedy. I will be looking for more books by Seaburn in the future.

A story told through many viewpoints, all coalescing in a tale of family drama, tragedy and forgiveness. Well-written, heartbreaking and impossible to put down.