Book Review & Giveaway: The Life We Bury

Synopsis:

College student Joe Talbert has the modest goal of completing a writing assignment for an English class. His task is to interview a stranger and write a brief biography of the person. With deadlines looming, Joe heads to a nearby nursing home to find a willing subject. There he meets Carl Iverson, and soon nothing in Joe’s life is ever the same.

Carl is a dying Vietnam veteran — and a convicted murderer. With not long to live, he has been medically paroled to a nursing home after spending thirty years in prison after being convicted of raping and murdering fourteen-year-old girl Crystal Hagen in 1980.

As Joe learns about Carl’s life — especially the details of Carl’s valor in Vietnam which is related by Carl’s friend — he cannot reconcile the heroism displayed by that young soldier with the despicable acts for which he was imprisoned. Joe and his skeptical female neighbor, Lila, devote themselves to uncovering the truth before Carl breathes his last breath.

But Joe must also deal with his dysfunctional mother, his guilt about leaving his autistic brother, Jeremy, vulnerable to her dangerous whims, and a haunting memory from his childhood.

Thread by thread, Joe unravels the tapestry of Carl’s conviction. But as he and Lila dig deeper into the truth about the crime, the stakes grow higher.

Will Joe discover the truth before it’s too late for Carl . . . or for Joe to escape the fallout from his efforts?

Review:

In his debut novel, author Allen Eskens has crafted a story that is deeply moving and thought-provoking, populated with compelling and empathetic characters, but also a fast-paced mystery. The Life We Bury is replete with surprising plot twists and long-held secrets, as well as pulse-pounding danger.

Joe Talbert grew up in Minnesota with no father, an equally fatherless autistic brother, and an alcoholic, bipolar mother. When Joe’s maternal grandfather was alive, he brought stability to the family. Joe recalls him as “a quiet man who could command attention with a simple glance or nod, a man who possessed equal parts strength and gentleness and wore them not in layers, but blended like fine leather.” However, his grandfather died tragically when Joe was just and since then, Joe’s mother has been spiraling further out of control.

Through hard work, hiding some of his earnings from his mother, and determination, Joe completed community college and has transferred to the University of Minnesota as a junior. As the story opens, Joe, 21 years old, is working as a bouncer and living in a small apartment with a bathroom across the hall as he pursues his studies. He needs to complete an assignment for his English class: write a biography about an elderly individual. So he proceeds to a senior center in search of a willing participant where the director steers him to Carl Iverson, a convicted murderer dying of pancreatic cancer.

Eskens immediately draws his readers into the complexities of Joe’s life. No sooner does Joe seem ready to launch into the project for his English class, he’s sucked back into the life he left two hours away when his mother is arrested and demands that Joe bail her out. Because she left eighteen-year-old Jeremy home alone, Joe must race back to his mother’s apartment to ensure Jeremy is safe. With no alternative arrangements available, Joe takes Jeremy back to his apartment with him and contemplates how he will juggle all of the demands upon him.

Of course, Iverson is not an easy person to get to know. Aside from his debilitated physical condition, he was incarcerated for 30 years and is not eager to unburden himself by confessing his crimes to Joe, even though Iverson tells Joe that their conversation will be his “dying declaration. I don’t care if anybody reads what you write. I don’t even care if you write it down at all. . . . I have to say the words out loud. I have to tell someone the truth about what happened all those years ago. I have to tell someone the truth about what I did.” Joe is naive when he first meets Iverson and immediately gets the sense that there is much to learn about what really happened all those years ago, especially when Iverson cryptically declares that there is a difference between killing and murdering. “I’ve done both. I’ve killed . . . and I’ve murdered. . . . It’s the difference between hoping that the sun rises and hoping that it doesn’t.” Could Iverson be innocent?

“I made a promise to write the truth,” I said. “And I will.” ~~ Joe Talbert

Eskens deftly guides readers through Joe’s voyage of discovering the truth about Iverson’s past, including his service in Vietnam, and how he came to be charged and convicted of murder. In the process, Joe also discovers much about himself, his relationships with his mother and brother, and his own strength and resilience. At one point, he realizes that his dedication is “no longer about getting an A on my project. . . . This had somehow become about me, about when I was eleven and watched my grandfather die.” His is a dangerous journey to the truth and Eskens expertly keeps the action moving at a relentless pace that is all-the-more fraught because he has already made his readers care deeply about Joe, the truth, and his future.

The Life We Bury is a beautifully crafted exploration of forgiveness, redemption, and the high price they often extract. It is also an examination of the power of truth. Eskens illustrates the trauma that many American soldiers suffered while serving in the Vietnam war and the devastating impact upon their post-war lives. Since he is a lawyer, Eskens gets the legal, evidentiary, and investigative details just right. But Eskens also proves himself an elegant novelist, capable of exploring his characters’ emotions and inner turmoil in a deeply effective, but never overwrought or gratuitous manner.

The Life We Bury is an impressive and promising debut novel. And fortunately, Joe’s story continues in the sequel, The Shadows We Hide. The story picks up six years later and revisits the aftermath of decisions made in The Life We Bury.

Also by Allen Eskens:

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