FINDING PLYMM

In Brookhouse’s novel, the history of a small Southern town comes alive as a newcomer searches for answers about a lost ancestor.

It’s 1990 in Elland,North Carolina, when handsome, scholarly vagabond Theo Vos takes up residence in the Castle, the historic estate of the refined Calla Drew, her heavy-drinking writer husband, Milo, and their agoraphobic teenage daughter, Martha, whom Theo has been hired to tutor. When he’s not translating French poetry to his precocious student, Theo can be found at Dolley’s Tavern with Calla’s brother-in-law, Jefferson, an affable imbiber who fancies himself a “guardian of local culture.” Jefferson’s collection of books on the history of Mott County is useful to Theo, who’s researching a long-lost relative whom he believes passed through the county—a place “known for its mountain music, outlaw ways, quaint speech, and vicious home brew.” Little does he know that Milo’s latest novel is an account of that very relative: Plymm, a Union Army soldier discharged after President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. As the book jumps between the past (as rendered through excerpts from Milo’s first-person novel) and the present, Theo finds the answers he’s searching for—and more. Brookhouse’s latest novel features the same nimble prose found in his previous work, including A Pinch of Salt (2020) and Percy’s Field (2018). The antiquated language of Milo’s Finding Plymm, the book within the book, is particularly pleasing. However, Brookhouse’s novel also has one foot in the archetypal past when it comes to its depiction of its female characters—from Martha, a mentally fragile figure with the much-ballyhooed “body of a young Grace Kelly,” to the housekeeper, Mrs. Garth, whose genitals Milo describes as “the portal of pleasure,” wholly separate from the woman herself. That aside, Brookhouse has crafted an intricate, engaging, and cohesive page-turner.

A Southern gothic tale with a propulsive plot but uneven character development.