I'LL COME TO YOU, by Rebecca Kauffman, is set somewhere in the Midwest, spans the year 1995, and covers the happenings of one family. During this time we meet a young couple who has struggled to become pregnant and is now expecting. Her parents are grappling with a serious health issue, which they haven't shared with anyone. Her brother, a habitual liar, is grappling with his divorce and shared custody of his sons. Her husband's family is different. After forty years of marriage, his father told his mother he wanted a divorce without offering a reason. Now, his mother is sort of dating a man who is a bit quirky. Confused? Is it possible for this group to form a cohesive unit?
First and foremost, I'LL COME TO YOU is a story about family. Uniquely constructed, the format is not conventional. Readers never know which character they'll hear from next and this approach works. Their individual stories are different and we can see how their pasts have shaped who they have become. Their relationships with one another are often fraught with tension, but when they are faced with a frightening situation, the family has to deal with a new reality.
The story is filled with profound statements and observations. The characters are deep thinkers and the author skillfully puts forth the different ways they deal with the realities that can confront any family. The author brings to readers a compelling and memorable story about family. Highly recommended.
A modern and classic story of family, I'll Come to You chronicles intersecting lives over the course of one year—1995—anchored by the anticipation and arrival of a child. With empathy, insight, and humor, Rebecca Kauffman explores overlapping narratives involving a couple whose struggle to become pregnant has both softened and hardened them, a woman whose husband of forty years has left her for reasons he’s unwilling to share and the man who is now disastrously attempting to woo her, a couple in denial about a looming health crisis, and their son who is fumbling toward middle age and can’t stop lying. Ultimately, these storylines crescendo and converge into a dramatic and harrowing turn of events. With heart, wit, and courage, and through pain, these characters traverse territory that both challenges and defines the bonds of family.
Sweeping yet compact, I’ll Come to You investigates themes of intimacy, memory, loss, grief, and reconciliation, and the wonder, terror, frustration, fear, and magic of brushing up against the unknowable—both around us and within us.
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