MENDING WHAT IS BROKEN

Peter Sanguedolce’s ex-wife, Avis, is a tough-minded attorney. When issues come up regarding the custody of their daughter, Jeanette, he does not have a lot of sway. A good-natured slacker, Peter inherited a family business that manufactured clay piping. This business subsequently failed. Peter now tends to spend his days overeating and vaguely considering reentering the business world. When his neighbor Jacob Weiner is put into a nursing home, he develops a friendship with the cantankerous old man. Jacob was the “chairman emeritus of the Oak Grove Music School Woodwinds Department,” and, though skilled with a clarinet, he was not (according to his daughter) the most able parent. Despite Peter’s general lack of direction (at one point he takes up baking), he has some pressing issues: Avis wants to send Jeanette away to boarding school in Connecticut. This does not seem to be the best fit for Jeanette, and Peter is suspicious of both Avis and her new husband, a budding politician named Elliott Fields. Meanwhile, Peter develops a relationship with Fay Halbrunner, the woman who bought Jacob’s former home. Fay insists that she and Peter try to help Jacob reengage with life. A road trip ensues in Peter’s 1988 Cadillac Brougham. It is not the last time in the narrative he will hit the road, journeying into the unknown with good (though misguided) intentions.

The plot features multiple twists and turns: Just as it seems that the situation with Avis is resolved and that the self-assured attorney has no more use for her ex-husband, cracks appear in her relationship with Elliott. When Fay has secured Peter’s interest, she suddenly finds that she has other business to attend to. These developments hold the reader’s interest as Peter eats (and drives) his way through his problems. Many of the motivations of the characters amount to very inconsequential, mundane issues; the nagging concerns over where to send Jeanette to school aren’t particularly funny or insightful. Even as the reader discovers the real reason Avis is so keen to send their daughter away, it does not make up for previous bland conversations on the subject. When an admissions director at a school asks Peter, “What makes you think that we’re the right one for Jeanette?” his response is as dull as the question. By contrast, Elliott, the obvious villain from the start, garners much greater intrigue: What exactly is this guy after? Why is he such a jerk? How will Peter manage to outfox the wily aspiring district attorney? This aspect of the story, along with comical lines, such as when Peter complains about construction workers blasting their radios (“Does each man have his own Rush Limbaugh?”), keeps it in motion, long after the Cadillac Brougham meets its own unhappy demise.