Review: The Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring

Every person you meet is living a life that is simultaneously public and private. We see the surface of people but can't see into their hearts and minds unless they let us in. This is true in big cities and small towns alike. People are people everywhere. Shannon Bowring shows us this in her devastating, heartbreaking, and yet somehow hopeful, debut novel The Road to Dalton.

Set in 1990 small town Dalton, Maine, this is the story of a handful of people in the town whose lives are intertwined in so many ways and whose actions, big and small, impact each other and the town as a whole. There's Richard, the town's dependable only doctor who has never loved his job but who holds so many of the town's secrets, Trudy, his wife, the town librarian who is best friends and more (a fact conveniently ignored by Richard) with Bev. Bev is married to Bill, who might or might not know about Bev and Trudy. They have one son, Nate, who is married to his high school sweetheart Bridget, who is suffering quietly from severe post-partum depression after giving birth to their daughter earlier than expected. There's Rose, a waitress at the local diner, who is being abused by the deadbeat father of her two boys, and there's Greg, a young teenager who is confused by his feelings about himself and his closest friends. These struggling people are all a part of the tapestry of the town; some are fraying and ome are pulled too tightly but all are important to the overall story.

Although there is a major event that effects all of the characters lives, this is a character study with an ensemble cast. Even before the major event, so many of the characters stand at a crossroads in their lives, facing huge decisions and changes that will change everything for them. Each of them are shaped by very personnal and interior secrets they all keep to themselves quietly. Bowring writes her characters skillfully, showing the push and pull of community, empathizing with the heavy and hard things that they are facing: post partum depression, suicidal ideation, domestic abuse, marital problems, job/life dissatisfaction/apathy, homophobia, and more. So many of these characters cannot live their lives openly, with joy and fulfillment and yet there is still hopefulness in the end, quite a feat for any writer but certainly one for a debut author. Readers who like quiet, complex novels and don't mind slower pacing will find much to enjoy here.