"Buckeye" | Reviewed by Chris Stuckenschneider

Readers are in for a treat with “Buckeye,” by Patrick Ryan. This big, sprawling, immersive novel has 452-pages that captivate from the onset, an epic that languidly reveals the story of two families from the 1940s through the 1970s.

Clear a space in your schedule for this beautifully written book set in the fictional town of Bonhomie, Ohio, an agricultural community where residents might not know everyone by name but will recognize a face they’ve seen at the movie theater or gas station.

Cal Jenkins is centerstage, the son and only living child of Everett Jenkins, a cantankerous World War I army veteran who took a hit in the arm and is a few cards short of a full deck. Cal is born with one leg two inches shorter than the other. At 21, he tries to enlist, but his disability makes serving in World War II impossible. While his buddies are overseas, Cal must make peace with staying put in Bonhomie and working in a plant.

Cal hasn’t dated anyone when he sees a past schoolmate at Fink’s Drugstore. Becky Hanover was a year behind Cal in school, a “compact, pretty and slightly odd girl.” Becky has always been fascinated by spirit mediums, people who get signals from the deceased, has heard voices from people who have passed and once solved a local mystery.

The two young people strike up a conversation, and start dating with regularity. In 1942, Cal and Becky are married. Becky’s father brings Cal into the family hardware store, and buys the couple a prefab house from Sears Roebuck. It isn’t long before Becky gets pregnant and Skip their son is born. Sadly, he will be the last child for the couple because of complications at birth.

Though it appears Cal’s life is predestined for happiness, his future laid out for him, an obstacle rears its ugly head that creates a chasm in Cal and Becky’s marriage. Becky grows obsessed with convening with the dead, and regularly sets up appointments with people desperately wanting to connect with loved ones. Becky offers her service at no charge and seems to have a real gift, but when an unsavory man makes return visits, Cal takes matters into his own hands. His interference leads to a blow-up, separate bedrooms, and a festering wound neither Cal nor Becky knows how to heal.

In the midst of this fray, an attractive young woman comes into the hardware store, quickly asking Cal if he has a radio. Cal responds and Margaret Salt brazenly heads to the basement of the shop, ignoring the “For Employees Only” sign, Cal rushing along behind her. They switch on the radio and hear the news that folks outside have been buzzing about. The war is over. Caught up in the moment, Margaret turns to Cal and kisses him full on the mouth, a pleasant but shocking play that foreshadows a crisis. Later, when Margaret marries dark, handsome Felix, a series of events make this novel difficult to set aside, as readers wonder when life-changing secrets will be revealed.

“Buckeye” is a nostalgic walk down memory lane, its characters developing and growing against the backdrop of World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam War. The author of this engaging read takes his time getting to the main crux of the story, fully investigating Cal, Margaret and Felix’s backstories, at times detouring into minor characters, that while interesting, demands patience because readers will be impatient to discover how the “showdown” of the plot will be handled.

This personal new favorite is reminiscent of former generational sagas like “Cutting for Stone,” and “The Poisonwood Bible.”

Buy the book.