CHANGE OF POSSESSION

In Dwyer’s debut novel, a series of teenagers’ deaths brings about crises in the lives of a high school senior gridiron star and his deeply religious mother.

Forty-six-year-old Anne Norrisis a devoutly Catholic homemaker. Her husband, Dane, is a retired NFL star, and their sons, Dylan and Janus, are entering their senior and freshman years (respectively) at St. Ambrose High School in Asheville, North Carolina. Dylan, in particular, is highly sought by Division I college football recruiters. The boys’ rebellious, partying older sister, Maryanne, is estranged from their parents, so Anne has become overprotective of her sons to the point of driving Dylan away. After several St. Ambrose students are killed over the summer—four by accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, two due to reckless driving, one by suicide, and one from fentanyl-laced cocaine—a sense of dread descends on the community. Anne feels increasingly helpless, especially because Dane has embraced a hands-off parenting style. Dylan, with a sunny future laid out for him, experiments with drugs and meaningless sexual liaisons, which eventually draws unwelcome attention. Anne, meanwhile, commits a desperate act that cuts to the heart of her faith and marriage. Dwyer writes in the omniscient past tense, employing a flowing prose style that ably establishes people and places. The characters are distinct and memorable, and their personalities emerge organically from the story. The point of the novel is difficult to pin down: Is it about college football recruiting? Parent/teen relationships? Religion? Identity? Is there a supernatural element to the deaths? The result is an intricately themed, rather grim depiction of how human flaws can bring about tragedy. The work has an elegiacal sense of happier times fading, and the intrusion of a changing world upon Asheville is cleverly personified through Dane and Dylan, who represent similar figures in different generations. Although the narrative develops slowly, with lengthy backstories and too-long discourses on football and religion, readers willing to immerse themselves will be rewarded.

A somber and disquieting portrayal of human frailties and familial disconnection.