Christopher Zenos

Review: Autumn In Carthage by Christopher Zenos. 11/22/2017

The story starts off slow but it didn’t take long to capture my interest. I thought it was well written, I enjoyed the characters once I figure out who was who and the story was entertaining. The death of some characters throughout the book, especially the ones you really liked was a bummer but the story must go on…There was mysterious time travel within the story and how mental illness can cast over lives, the redemptive power of love, and all the difficulties of choice.

The main character Nathan Price is a college professor looking forward to a year’s uninterrupted sabbatical, doing historical research when he received some data he requested from a museum in Salem, Massachusetts. While going over the papers he came across a reference concerning Jamie, his friend who has been missing for months. This new information made him decide to go to Carthage, Wisconsin to work on his book and look into the disappearance of his friend.

Carthage was a small quiet community and when Nathan got there he checked into the picturesque Inn the town offered. He was first welcomed by Gerry the innkeeper, chef, and bar tender. At some point during his meal Nathan mentioned to Gerry and Alanna who was one of the locals, the reason he choose Carthage for a visit. Right off Nathan felt a change in the welcoming atmosphere and as the story unfolds Nathan and the reader will gradually find out why… There are still more variety of personalities to be introduced, some profanity throughout, and a couple of explicit sex scenes to overcome but all and all the second half of the book was better….

Many readers mentioned something Zenos wrote that memorized them as it did me.

“Too much unvoiced misery, too many people lost and alone ~in marriages, relationships, nestled within their families ~well trained through threat of social rejection to keep pain carefully hidden.”… (lisätietoja)

Nathan Price is about to go on sabbatical from the University of Chicago when he receives a parcel of 17th century documents among which, impossibly, is a letter in the handwriting of his best friend, Jamie McKinnon, who had disappeared six months before. Equally impossibly the letter mentions the town of Carthage, Wisconsin, which didn't exist in the 17th century. Nathan sets out for Carthage to investigate. It's a town with secrets, but then again Nathan has secrets of his own.

Good plot and characters, but rather flat descriptions. The technobabble for the time travel left me a bit 'meh', but as the plot progressed the excitement really picked up and carried me along.… (lisätietoja)