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“She hears the front door bang open. Against an earlier promise, Katie adds another finger’s worth of Grand Marnier to her glass, careful to tread quietly across the studio floor. Her glass is streaked black from the paint still on her fingertips. From the kitchen, the blender churns and she envisions the lipstick red potion of creatine powder and fruit punch, one of three daily doses her son guzzles down. With an ear to the door, Katie listens as C.J. rummages through the refrigerator. She pictures him wolfing down cold cuts and hard boiled eggs, cottage cheese and pickles. He eats like a pregnant woman, chronically hungry. Cabinets frantically open and close, drawers are slammed shut. He can’t seem to do anything quietly. And not until Katie hears his heavy footsteps on the stairwell does she spit the ice cubes from her mouth.”
On the brink of her fortieth birthday, Katie Olmstead is in no mood to celebrate. Still tending bar to support a stalled art career, she continues to struggle with her temperamental teenage son, C.J., who wants less to do with her every day. When Katie gets word that C.J.’s. estranged father has died and willed C.J. his Harley-Davidson, the gift quickly becomes a wedge driving C.J. and Katie even further apart.
With the past parked in the driveway of their New England home, C.J.’s increasing outbursts and Katie’s self-sabotage resurrect memories of Katie’s own troubled childhood, one plagued by a mentally ill mother and a neglectful father. As Katie’s notion of motherhood is tested, her artistic ambitions dwindle and she begins to feel like an imposter amongst her seemingly refined neighbors.
Suddenly faced with a bullying, overachieving sister she hasn’t spoken to in years, an on-again, off-again boyfriend she just can’t love, and a drinking habit that’s spiraling out of control, Katie finds support in an unlikely place—her eccentric and ailing great uncle, Walter. From his room on the third floor, Walter watches over them, encouraging both Katie and C.J. to do the work they fear in order to redeem their family.
A beautifully written family drama, Call Me When You Land offers an astutely observed portrait of a broken family striving toward repair. Out of the his protagonist’s despair, debut novelist Schiavone extracts humor, compassion, courage, and offers insight into the deeply human determination to survive.
An award winning, widely published short story writer, Michael Schiavone lives in Gloucester, MA, with his wife, son, and their three dogs. He works as an emergency medical technician and day trader. Call Me When You Land is his first novel. For more information, please visit: www.michaelschiavone.com
Price: $28.00
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