Lions by Bonnie Nadzam

 

Lions, Colorado is dying.  Started over a century ago with high hopes, it never grew as other towns and cities did.  The land wasn't good for farming and industry or mining never got started.  Now it is a wreck of a town with only a handful of families still holding on.

The Walker family is one of these.  John Walker is a welder and could make much more money anywhere else as he is an acknowledged master.  His wife and son, Gordon make up the rest of the family.  Gordon is about to leave for college along with his longtime girlfriend, Leigh.  Leigh's mother runs the town cafe.  The two have spent years talking about getting out of Lions and making their lives in the wider world and its about to happen.

Then John Walker dies unexpectedly.  Gordon is torn between leaving with Leigh or staying behind to take care of his mother and the business.  There has always been a rumor that the Walker men are cursed to forever take care of a ghost who resides north of the town.  Is that keeping Gordon locked to Lions?

Readers will be haunted by this story.  It is the story of many towns, started in glorious anticipation and left to decay as industries flee and jobs become scarce.  It creates an insular environment where romantic entanglements are almost written in stone as there is a dearth of possible candidates and where residents must decide if they will continue until the very end or find the strength to move on and make another life.  The writing is lovely and descriptive with a hint of mystery around the ghost who may or may not exist.  It also explores the question of what we owe our nuclear families as we in turn grow up.  This novel is recommended for readers of literary fiction.