By Julian Jones, $15.99; Homespun Press; 329 pages
Putting different ( and almost opposite ) people who try to solve individual problems together—in the same context, whether they like it or not, and usually under pressing circumstances—might be the recipe of a war or prison novel, or a reality show. But Julian Jones sets his characters in a more down-to-earth situation: a family funeral, because all families can be as weird as any group of soldiers or inmates.
One day, Bohunk woke up to realize his biological father is dying. Bohunk must leave Arizona for the first time to go to a tiny town in rural Kansas to get to know him and his second family. His trip buddies? His impulsive and exhausting longing-for-her-youth mother and her husband/his it's-complicated, the smart-mouthed Troy ( because "nobody changes the temperature of the world for me quicker than Troy does" ). Bohunk will soon start a to-do list that eventually and accidentally becomes a bucket list to face inevitable truths, emotional bargaining, co-dependance, and conformism. Facing the past eventually shows harsh secrets and lies but, for Bohunk, it is too late to go back.
The protagonist is a strong, sweet and young go-go dancer, hornier than a donkey in spring, but trapped in the body of a boy whose hard life has not given him the chances to exploit his Sherlock Holmes's smarts and good intentions. The lack of education and proper parent figures have led him to make choices to survive in the present, not to plan for the future he deserves.
Unbelievably, a group of neglected orphans are forced to share their lives full of drugs, not-so-white lies, cheap alcohol, shady bars, complex sexualities, stolen objects of desire and misunderstood loves. The new family secrets force him to apply his number one rule about lying: "to always tell the truth." His adventure helps him to put things under the microscope and in perspective, in order to take responsibility for his own actions and feelings.
Jones' delicious descriptions of common ( and even trashy ) people and places trigger nostalgia about personal possessions that only make sense for their owner. It is not the first time a protagonist has left a big chaotic city with its shallow problems, for a trip to a small town where an encounter with his or her roots redefines his or her life. It's not the first time either that a love triangle has to be solved. However, since it has been done several times before, is because it works and is worth doing it again, and Bohunk's Big To-Do does it brilliantly.
A trip changes Bohunk's plans and perspectives about life and love. Traveling somewhere means traveling inside oneself, means getting to know a new aspect of oneself in a new context. This "Midwestern Gothic Wagon Ride" about the life in the middle of America is ideal for those who enjoy soap-opera liaisons, but also deep existential monologues.
Visit bohunksbigtodo.com .
