Back Where He Started

Book Description

They say true freedom arrives when all the kids are gone and the dog dies. With his family grown and his husband Zack having decided to become a middle-aged cliché and marry his secretary, Chris Thayer is about to discover that starting life over at 48 is just as complicated, frustrating and thrilling as the first time around. After relocating to the North Carolina beach community of Emerald Isle, Chris finds a new appreciation of his role as the heart of the home to his grown children and becomes involved in the patchwork lives of his neighbors. To his unending surprise, he also finds himself the object of a new man's affections, a rowdy jack-of-all-trades with an unnervingly direct stare. In the same quiet, understated manner that he demonstrated in his critically acclaimed first novel, Metes and Bounds, Jay Quinn gives the traditional Southern novel a decidedly untraditional twist.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

There is an old southern saying that life begins when the kids are grown and the dog dies...

Jay Quinn's lovely new novel, Back Where He Started about what happens when families dissolve once the kids are grown, explores the nature of parenthood and home while unassumingly breaking new ground in fiction. Set in the outer banks of coastal North Carolina, Back Where He Started showcases Quinn's unadorned, heartfelt style, which can best be compared to Anne Tyler or Sue Miller, and also shows deep affection and respect for the author's Southern heritage.

48-year-old Chris Thayer has spent most of his adult life as a house husband to Zack Ronan, and mother to Zack's children Trey, Schooner and Andrea. When Zack leaves him (for his female secretary) Chris packs up the dog and moves to the beach community of Emerald Isle, North Carolina where he discovers that starting life over at 48 is just as complicated, frustrating, and thrilling as the first time around.

As he becomes involved in the patchwork lives of his new neighbors, which include a young husband-and-wife psychiatric team expecting their first child, the priest of the local Catholic Church, the town veterinarian, and a rowdy jack-of-all trades with an unnervingly direct stare, Chris begins to enjoy his new status as a man unto himself who is valued for his own contributions to his community.

To his unending surprise, he also finds himself the object of a new man's affections: the sexy local handyman who in turn sweeps Chris off his feet.

From neighborly interactions to the drama of a hurricane, Quinn, a native of Eastern North Carolina who now lives just outside Fort Lauderdale, Florida. captures the feel and the sound of his home state with flawless ease.

But it is the movingly portrayed show of loyalty by Zack's children, who never let Chris forget his place as the heart of the home, that forms the soul of this remarkable novel. As he realizes how his choices have shaped the lives of others, he comes to understand that no part of a life lived well and lovingly can ever have been wasted. The stunningly realized final section of Back Where He Started, finds Chris, letting go and forgiving as the only way to embrace his future.