MY DARLING BOY

A story of love, drugs, and hope.

In Anastasia, Florida, Olney Kartheizer had been a doting father to his son, Cully, and a devoted husband to Kat, who eventually leaves him. The lad was a star athlete who could pitch with either hand and write in Spanish with one hand while writing in English with the other. One day, he tells Olney he’s quitting sports because “fun will only get you so far.” Cully has some minor but painful accidents that lead to his use of OxyContin—or does the Oxy lead to the accidents? We never know, but the addictive poison wedges itself between father and son. Cully keeps asking his dad for money for one thing or another to “turn his life around,” and Olney is increasingly reluctant to give it. Cully tells his father he doesn’t need his approval and is “uncomfortable with constant parental proximity, preferring, himself, the bliss of distance.” Cully says he wishes his dad would treat him like a human being who has feelings, but Olney seems to be doing his best. Then Cully disappears, Olney looks for him and finally finds him—but not for long. The young man is on a self-destructive path, even getting fired from jobs such as sign twirling. His sometime girlfriend aptly calls him an “oxy moron,” one of the many examples of clever wordplay that help lighten the story. Olney, who doesn’t believe in God but likes to watch religious programs on TV, by chance meets Mireille Tighe, who is sweet, funny, and dying. Her throat is constricting from dysphagia, and soon she’ll be unable to swallow. “I intend to get to know you,” he tells her. “Better hurry up,” she replies. Readers will feel worse for this lovely woman than she does for herself, adding a layer of emotion atop the tale of filial loss. Olney could be any single father, any ordinary man who loves his child. But he spends a lot of time daydreaming about the past because that’s where he left his son. Meanwhile, does Olney love Cully only for who he was and not for who he is? Or is the love unconditional, as it may seem to the reader? Cully keeps leaving without a trace, and Olney keeps looking. And hoping.

Deeply emotional and satisfying.