Book Review 2005-055: The Point of Fracture by Frank Turner Hollon
55th Book: Review Date August 29, 2005
The Point of Fracture by Frank Turner Hollon
September 17, 2005 by MacAdam/Cage 260 pages
Frank Turner Hollon follows up his hilarious novel, Life is a Strange Place, with a return to writing about the law to some degree. A lawyer when he’s not penning excellent fiction, Hollon’s third novel, A Thin Difference, has been referred to by Judge (and author) Martin Clark as one that should be read by every lawyer, and MFA student, in America. With The Point of Fracture, Hollon has challenged himself with another book that may fall into that category.
This time around, Hollon writes mainly of Michael Brace, and his wife Suzanne. Married for fifteen years, with no children, the marriage has disintegrated as Michael’s efforts at providing an income have decreased, and Suzanne’s health issues of increased. Michael considers himself an artist, though not one that seems to find many muses that will inspire him to set down the bourbon and pick up the pen and paper. Meanwhile, Suzanne gets incredible headaches that lead to her lying absolutely still in darkness. As her condition worsened, Michael, at first out of consideration, moved himself out to the couch at night. A few days turned into a few weeks turned into a few years. Another aspect leading to the demise of their relationship, unbeknownst to Michael, was Suzanne’s childhood memories of her father, and the apparent history of mental illness in her family tree.
At some point in their lives, Michael begins to hear a voice from Suzanne and it is the voice he’s been waiting to write from the point of view of. He’s not too far along into the writing when she stumbles across his manuscript and cannot believe how he knows things she’s never discussed with him. Between her outrage at this, anger towards her father, her dislike of Michael’s wealthy family (his brother Phillip is a very successful lawyer) and general dismay at her own life, she finds the need to change things drastically.
Suzanne puts into play, an elaborately planned effort at harming Michael. As the plan is being put into effect, the reader is aware of that fact, but not of the actual plan and when the final act of the plan takes place, it is quite shocking. Having read Hollon’s earlier A Thin Difference, I immediately began re-thinking the events that led up to the big act, while continuing to read the final third of the book, which takes place mainly in court, or scenes with lawyers present.
While the writing is fantastic, and very economical, the book can also easily be described as a page-turner. Once Hollon established the story and characters by the middle of the first third, I couldn’t put the book down. As much as I thought I was prepared to ferret them out, I was still surprised three or four times – and not by characters doing something ridiculously out of character. And adding to the extremely fine writing, and great story, Hollon has somehow also snuck some fine thoughts on family relationships and how communities develop beliefs and attitudes within themselves.
This is another in what is developing into a very good shelf of books written by Hollon. If you’ve not had the pleasure of reading his work, this isn’t a bad start at all, and will most certainly lead you to more of his efforts.
4.5 Stars
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