buckeye by patrick ryan

This is going to be the generational trauma novel of the fall. It is Ohio’s Forrest Gump, without the grandiosity.

Imagine you are looking at an American history book from around 1920-1976. Then zoom into Ohio, then a town of 6,000 people called Bonhomie. Then zoom further onto two interconnected families. Cal Jenkins was exempt from military service because one leg is longer than the other. He marries local girl Becky Hanover, who soon discovers a special gift. Margaret Anderson was an abandoned infant who grows up in a girls’ orphanage. She is happy to marry Felix Salt, although they barely know each other, and soon he is off to war.

“Is the future knowable? Will our older selves be anything like our younger selves thought we would be? We can only find out by writing it down and then putting it out of our minds and letting life take its course. The unraveling of time should be mysterious, don’t you think?”

Sweeping long periods of time, this descriptive book hits on most major historical events and how they may be experienced by small town white America. If it has any faults, it is probably a bit nostalgic, but those moments are always followed by a reality of the time that leaves this reader grateful to have been born later. Several songs are mentioned that keep me moving along with the Jenkins and Salt families. Every storyline is sandwiched within the context of American history.

In many ways, it is the story of every midwestern town. The story explores patriotism, duty, honor, and what makes a family. Cal’s father Everett often writes letters to the current president expressing his dissatisfaction, these letters make me wonder what my great grandfather would have

The characters are far from perfect, with the possible exception of Becky, they are flawed and afraid to be who they are meant to be. I think the characters will stay with me for a long time.

For fans of Long Island Compromise, The Celebrants, Same As it Ever Was, and Blue Sisters.

I think it is high time to ask if you have noticed that the ones who do the talking in war are never the ones who do the dying?

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC. Book to be published September 2, 2025.