Publication
Collection
Call number
Physical description
Status
Call number
Description
Ron Hansen has won an Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters for his rich writing and poetic style. Atticus begins in the vein of a contemporary western. As it unfolds, it includes an intriguing murder mystery and a dramatic parable of the prodigal son. For years, prosperous Colorado rancher Atticus Cody has tried to understand his rootless son, Scott, who is now living a marginal life in Mexico. When he learns that Scott is dead, apparently by suicide, Atticus travels to Mexico to claim the body. Instead, he discovers evidence of murder and a trail of clues that will lead him to a strange and wonderful epiphany. Suspense and conflict, love and forgiveness combine in this deft story of Atticus' search for his son. Each character stands out, sharply etched, against the bright Mexican landscape.… (more)
Subjects
User reviews
The story is ok. Some parts sneak up on you, which is usually good. But it may be becuase you don't find yourself fully
I did finish it with no problem and I never really hit a slow part or anything. So it can't be that bad, right?
Maybe I was just hoping it was going to be something it wasn't.
This is why I now read "blurbs" with a more skeptical eye and am relying on recommenations from LibraryThingers more and more!
This was alright. I didn't find it terribly exciting.
My reactions
In many ways this story echoes the parable of the Prodigal Son from the bible. While there is certainly a mystery at its core, the novel is more about the father-son relationship: the father’s fierce and unfaltering love for his son, the son’s need to atone for past mistakes and despair at feeling unable to make amends, and the failure of both of them to openly communicate and understand one another.
The plot has several twists and turns that kept me intrigued and turning pages. But the star of the novel, to me, was the writing and the exploration of these characters and their motivations. I was completely engrossed in their story, and wanted to cheer at the end.
This novel is a modern retelling of the parable of the Prodigal Son. Catholic religious themes run throughout the book. Scott lived in a town called Resurrección, a name that also carries religious symbolism. The father in the Prodigal Son symbolizes God, and Atticus is likened to God in a conversation in the novel. Most readers will also associate him with Atticus Finch, the father in To Kill a Mockingbird. When Atticus is questioned about this in the novel, he replies that “Up until the sixties I had the name to myself.” While that may be true in the fictional universe of the novel, in the world of literature Atticus Finch preceded Atticus Cody by several decades. Since Atticus is such an unusual name, most readers wouldn't have needed the lines drawn for them to make that connection. It's tempting to read this as a crime novel since murder is involved, but when read through that lens it peaks too early. It's better to read it as the literary fiction it is.
Up to this point, the novel seems a pretty run-of-the-mill
Then Hansen pulls the rug out from under the reader in the last chapter and the story becomes something else entirely.