MOSS

In this novel, the illegitimate son of a literary giant deals with love, loss, and the struggle to find himself.

Oscar Kendall’s father was Isaiah Moss, a god in the literary pantheon (think Philip Roth, John Updike, Saul Bellow). It is the old story of the epigone. Oscar is a relentless writer himself but has never published a thing because Papa Isaiah’s talent is overpowering, sapping, and emasculating. Instead, Oscar keeps a low profile, teaching at a prep school, hiding his paternity, and wallowing in his inadequacies. Then Isaiah dies and leaves Oscar his cabin on a New Hampshire lake and all its contents, which include the manuscript of his last, unpublished book. Oscar, there for the summer, meets May Pierce, a fierce amputee, and falls slowly in love with her. Readers discover information about Isaiah from his acerbic but oddly ambiguous letters to his son. Readers also learn the history of so many who suffered during various wars: Isaiah’s father, who died in World War II; May’s grandmother Ruby Pierce’s young husband, who died in Vietnam; May, who lost her legs in Afghanistan; and Isaiah, who lost his innocence in Korea. Pace is a very strong writer considering that he has to produce passages supposedly penned by this imagined titan of letters. What starts out as a rumination about literature and aspirations—will Oscar find the courage to escape his father’s shadow, or is he in fact a genteel loser?—turns subtly into a compelling reflection on the loss of life and limbs (May was a champion runner). Along the way, there are intriguing “interludes” that readers find out are excerpts or fodder for the manuscript that Oscar will finally start writing (“Free at last!”). Perhaps the best part of the book is Pace’s decision to make Oscar the narrator. He provides a wonderful voice, all the insecurities, but also all the anger and decency that Oscar is unaware of but that readers will recognize. He has always been a better man than he thought, and the audience will rejoice to see that.

An excellent and thoughtful exploration of art, ambition, and mortality.