Wichita - Thad Ziolkowski

I picked up Thad Ziolkowski’s 2012 debut novel, Wichita, based on reviews that posed a son returning home & storm chasing with his colorful mom. Implications of metaphysical ponderings lit up my radar. Well…the novel turned out to be a coming of age story, which I usually avoid like the plague. Being 25 years old once was enough for me. However, this time, I became quite attached to the two brothers of this tale. Lewis Chopnik is a broken hearted, failed academic, who has returned home to nurse his wounds & wonder what's next. His divorced mother is a "polyamorous" self-discovery tornado, who is starting a storm chasing business. What she's really looking for could have been more sharply articulated, but she is a hoot, nevertheless. Lewis is rightfully dismayed to discover that his brother Seth is on the homestead. Seth is a bi-polar drug ingesting force of nature, extraordinarily manipulative of his family, and probably dangerous. I was prepared to be annoyed with him & ditch the book, but instead I became quite fond of him Some of Seth's cadre of hard drinking losers are not keepers as characters. Their father is a highly regarded academic, as well as their grandfather. They both skirt the edges of the story enough to realize that mom & dad didn't read the parenting manual.  It's a fast read, but not surprisingly, with a dark ending.