The Lion Trees
by Owen Thomas
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Pub Date Aug 26 2014 | Archive Date Jun 23 2015
Description
What happens when you get the life you aim for and it hurts like hell?
The Johns family is unraveling. Hollis, a retired Ohio banker, isolates himself in esoteric hobbies and a dangerous flirtation with a colleague’s daughter. Susan, his wife of forty years, risks everything for a second chance at who she might have become. David, their eldest, thrashes to stay afloat as his teaching career capsizes in a storm of accusations involving a missing student and the legacy of Christopher Columbus. And young Tilly, the black sheep, having traded literary promise for an improbable career as a Hollywood starlet, struggles to define herself amid salacious scandal, the demands of a powerful director, and the judgments of an uncompromising writer.
By turns comical and poignant, the Johns family is tumbling toward the discovery that sometimes you have to let go of your identity to find out who you are.
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Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9780692235904 |
| PRICE | $27.00 (USD) |
Featured Reviews
Kathleen D, Reviewer
This is a beefy novel that doesn't rush the reader, but instead grafts them to the family tree. The Johns family is a wreck with father Hollis disconnected and searching for some sort of nirvana, maybe even with the young daughter of a colleague. 40 years of marriage has both he and his wife disenchanted with their own lives, and each other. Susan doesn't seem to have an identity any longer, having buried it in her husband's needs and raising the children. From the beginning the reader is intimately drawn in with the cold interaction Susan and Hollis share with her calling to Hollis and he ignoring her. The reader knows that they may as well be living on separate planets and may as well be separate creatures entirely. Their daughter Tilly is living under constant rumor and scandal as a Hollywood star with a rotten reputation, no longer living up to her promising future. The dynamic between Hollis and Tilly is slowly uncovered, and she demands her parents get counseling before she dares to see them. Son David is hooked into a scandal of his own when a female student disappears, only to find his teaching job pulled out from under him. Of course, there is always the undercurrent of jealousy towards his sister 'the star' to contend with. This is not a happy family, they are not just slowly unraveling, they are crumbling.
As with most families, each character has their own complexities and does a fast job annoying the reader as much as demanding their attention. It is not a light, quick read. David was the easiest to feel compassion for. But each of the Johns family has a way of reaching out and forcing the reader to care. The Lion Trees is very involved in the life of the Johns, and reminds me of certain classics. It took my quite some time to finish this story, but I had to know what happened with everyone. There are strange turns in the novel that I didn't expect. Particularly with Hollis and his little honey. The characters can't hide from the reader here, the probe inside the heart of each Johns is too deep. Wonderful writing.
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