To Nourish and Consume

Ryan O’Reilly

Did you ever what the story line of Sex and the City might be like if the story had been told from a make point of view? It would definitely be different, but would it be better?  I don’t really know, I do know that this story is better because it is told by the lead male character, Brian Falk.  When I first started the book, I kept going back to the beginning to be sure that it was being told by a man and not a woman. I kept thinking that I was reading a coming of age story form a female point of view.  This didn’t matter once I got into the story. The story held my interest,  it didn’t matter which voice it was being told in.

Brian Falk returns to his adolescent home to try to discover what shaped and made him that man that he turned out to be. Brian fled his home town after his high school graduation and spends the next ten years agonizing over what might have been. He is part of a trio of friends that shaped him more than he shaped them. He falls in love with both of his friends bit in different ways. He is warned by the grandfather of one of them, that he will never be right for his granddaughter. Brian is very human at this point; he hears what he thinks is being said, not what is really being said. He is also very much a teenager. He reacts by running away, not by staying and questioning or fighting. His two friends, Jackie and Dabney, grow up and apparently forget about him. They marry each other, make a life and make a mess of it. Jackie is cold and manipulative; Dabney has anger issues and is explosive. Brian also makes a mess of his life.  Brian’s mess is that he can’t get over either of them, and can’t form meaningful relationships because of them. He carries the past with him and always wonders what if. He is successful in other parts of his life, and hopes that by returning to the scene of the crime, so to speak, he can make peace with his life and move on. No more spoilers here, you need to read the story to find out what happens. Is he successful or is he pulled back into his old life?

Reilly has created a wonderful character in Brian Falk, sensitive, perceptive and caring. On the surface, he is the kind of man that every woman is looking for. Brian is also quite capable of being a “bad boy”, also what some women look for in a man. The underlying story revolves around Brian’s questioning of all the “what if’s” in his life. What if he and Jackie could have had a romantic future? What if he could have been a better friend to Dabney ? What if he had stayed and taken over the family business? The what if’s go on and on and held shape the story.  I’m not sure how many writers can pull off developing a character this way without destroying the character; I know that Ryan O’Reilly pulled it off.  In the end, all of the characters realize  that they shape their own future and Brian realizes that he has come to a good place in his life.

I also learned that a story of self discovery and growth can be told equally well by a male voice.

This is a book that I will recommend without reservation. I give it 5 stars !