Mark Spragg, An Unfinished Life

An Unfinished Life

Mark Spragg

Knopf, Sep 2004, $23.00, 257 pp.

ISBN: 1400042011

Ten years have passed since Griffin Gilkyson died in an accident at the age of twenty-one. His "An unfinished life", as etched on his gravestone, has impacted everyone who loved him. His wife Jean has leaped in and out of the beds of four abusive males since she lost her spouse. His daughter Griff never knew him as she is only nine and a half. His father Einar blames his daughter-in-law for Griffin's death, has never met his granddaughter, and wants to die but not before Jean is dead. Finally, his best friend, Korean War buddy Mitch, would not have been nearly killed by a bear.

Living in a trailer with a nasty SOB, Jean worries about Griff and decides she needs to regain control of her life. Her only hope is for her and her daughter to buy time at Einar's home in Ishawooa, Wyoming though she knows her in-law detests her. She believes it is time for Griff and Einar to meet and for everyone to move on though keep the fond memories of the beloved link that ties all of them together. However, can Einar forgive even though he desperately wants to hug his granddaughter, Griffin's only meaningful memory?

Though this intriguing family drama is a five tissue box tearjerker that plays on the readers' emotions, Mark Spragg does it so well that fans will call him a virtuoso. The storyline is obviously character-driven with the quartet containing different personalities. There is a suspense-laden twist that adds tension which takes away from the real action of four people trying to exist together without relating.

Harriet Klausner