This Thing Called LoveThe novel depicts a tumultuous week in the life of the SWEENEY FAMILY. the setting is Flemington, a small town in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. It is the fall of 1958. the story is told through multiple points of view, but primarily MATT'S, a bright introspective young man two weeks shy of his sixteenth birthday. During an argument between his mother, CLARA, and his father, DANNY, violence erupts and Clara is admitted to the hospital with a fractured cheek bone. On discharge, Clara and Matt go to stay with her parents. Danny vows to quit drinking and to break-off his relationship with his girlfriend, NAOMI. Danny tells Naomi they cannot continue their relationship. He enlists Naomi, who is the wife of a physician, to help him quit drinking. She steals prescription medicines from her husband's office. She and Danny check into a hotel the same day Clara is released from the hospital. A friend tells Matt that he saw Matt's father and a woman check into a hotel. Matt is furious. He drives to the hotel where he plans to catch his father in this act of betrayal. Naomi has given Danny a medication that can make him deathly ill if he ingests even a small amount of alcohol. Danny has stashed a bottle of whiskey in his suitcase in case the withdrawal symptoms became intolerable. Naomi finds the bottle while Danny is asleep. She starts to pour its contents down the bathroom sink, but Danny awakens, and she hurriedly hides the mostly empty bottle behind a waste basket. Danny unfortunately discovers the bottle and before Naomi can stop him he drinks the last ounce or two. He falls to the floor still clutching the empty bottle. Matt is at the door. He hears his father shouting about his whiskey being gone. He pounds on the door until Naomi lets him in. She is in a bathrobe. He sees his father lying on his back, the empty whiskey bottle still in his hand. Matt who himself has been drinking, rushes to his father and in an impulsive act of furious indignation pours a flask of Martini's into his father's gaping mouth. Danny soon vomits and aspirates. He has a protracted seizure and is rushed to the hospital. He lapses into a coma. When it appears that Danny may die, Naomi's husband, JORDAN, a staff physician at the local hospital alters the medical record in order to conceal his wife's liability for having given Danny a prescription drug. Danny remains in a coma for several days. Matt is certain he is responsible for what has happened to his father. Naomi believing she is responsible for Danny's condition, and suffering herself from depression following the death of her only son, two years previously, takes an overdose of barbiturates. the story involves complex relationships among the main characters and Clara's and Danny's quirky extended family. A series of unexpected events and revelations, result in meaningful and unexpected change in the story's primary characters. It is a family drama in the comedic tradition where in the face of seeming insurmountable obstacles a family is brought together by the age old magic of this thing called love. |
