Set in early '70s Boston/New England, THE NARROWS follows a hapless hero who attempts to rescue his cousin from a religious cult.
In THE NARROWS, narrator Larry Brown is a seventh grade English teacher at a public school in Boston. He is surrounded by academics, from his professor parents, to his math teacher pal, Hal, to his two-timing college girlfriend, Millie. During a night out drinking with Hal, Larry encounters a young man who is trying to escape a religious cult called The Path. Hal and Larry try to intervene on the boy’s behalf, but the night ends in a bar fight and the mysterious young man drowned in the Charles River. Later, Larry attends his father’s “professor party” and meets Jenny, a girl who claims her brother was abducted by The Path. And when he gets home, Larry finds a Path postcard tucked under his door. Seems like his cousin Bradley has joined The Path, too.
Many people would interpret these “crossed paths” with The Path as divine signs of some sort. But Larry isn’t the kind of guy who believes in omens and superstition. A burning bush could drop in his lap and Larry would find some rational, non-confrontational way to write it off. That’s Larry. He lives in a turbulent time in American history, when the promise of “free love and revolution” quickly soured in the narcissistic hands of the ‘70s “Me Generation.” The world is changing around Larry, but he longs for a more simple — and unrealistic — time when he and his cousin were young and carefree. THE NARROWS refers to Larry’s old family home, a beautiful, waterfront estate where Larry and his cousins spent summers together as kids.
Mark Zvonkovic has crafted a fine character study in THE NARROWS, even though the novel is essentially framed as a thriller. The characters around Larry move with determination and drive, while Larry remains inert. It’s not until he commits to helping rescue Bradley and Jenny’s brother that Larry grows beyond his “narrow” comfort zone. But does Bradley really need saving? The third act of THE NARROWS casts the first two-thirds of the novel in a different light, contrasting Larry’s tepid life-choices with Bradley’s epic journey toward inner peace. Bradley seems to have found his place in the world, but Larry still needs “rescuing” from his own inhibitions It’s taking Larry a bit longer, but he’s on his way by the novel’s close.
Books written by well-read authors always have an authentic literary ring, like they acknowledge their own place in the “world of letters” by referencing the great works that came before them. Art builds on art, and Zvonkovic successfully uses the academic setting of THE NARROWS to explore existential and spiritual themes forged by Thomas Aquinas, William Blake, and James Joyce, among others. As a result, there’s a lot of depth to this story of a bungled rescue mission. Zvonkovic has crafted an excellent story, rich in detail and genuinely engaging.
Compelling characters and poignant philosophical questions drive THE NARROWS, where narrator Larry Brown struggles to find his place in the turbulent early ’70s. An excellent family drama with suspense and heart.
~Rob Errera for IndieReader
