Backstory for the novel A THEORY OF EXPANDED LOVE.
‘Daddy in our midst so tiny, his small frame lost in billowing clothes and an oversized hat, a hunched-over reminder of our own mortality . . .
The patriarch of an enormous Catholic family turns 88 with children & grandchildren celebrating him. Details of a family still intact just prior to the family’s demise are captured through the lens of one child, returning after years of absence.
“And yet, everything still in its place. . . details long ago forgotten but instantly remembered around every turn . . . Here, as long as the rules were obeyed, the world was kept at bay. ‘Say grace, stack the dishes, don’t forget to say ‘Eternal Rest’. As if we were still children, as if we, too, were safe from life’s inevitability . . .’ A moment in the delicious, sad remembrance of an achingly familiar scene just months before irrevocable change.
Previously published in HERIZONS, in 1999 under the title: One Man’s Family.
A THEORY OF EXPANDED LOVE is the fictionalized story of an enormous family of Catholics in Pasadena, in 1963. Here are some early reviews: of this popular book
