Libby Holden has lost touch with most everything meaningful in her life since her young daughter Lacey's death several years before the story begins. She blames her husband Greg and estranges herself from him until her marriage is one in name only. Her two college-age sons are traveling out of country on a project, and Greg is about to take one of his wilderness jaunts to do what men do when they need time to just be themselves. The truth is she could care less about what he does or where he goes.
But come time for his return, he doesn't arrive home. Days pass and Libby begins to contemplate a funeral. After doing the paperwork involved in reporting him actually missing, Greg's dad Frank decides he's going after his son, knowing the general route he likes to trek. Jenika, Libby's neighbor and best friend, helps Libby search Greg's office for any clues that might make his absence somehow understandable, discovering a small journal Libby didn't know he had. Libby fears Greg has beaten her to the punch of deserting their marriage, something she's been seriously contemplating. She's more angry - and even vaguely relieved - than fearful when he fails to come home.
This is the scenario that takes us through Libby's first person journey of insisting on accompanying her father-in-law to search for her husband. That her best friend also insists on joining her and Frank with the blessing of her husband gives Libby the comfort she needs to undertake something neither of the ladies are even remotely qualified to attempt.
Cynthia Ruchti's debut novel They Almost Always Come Home manages to deliver a distinctive voice in a heroine who's difficult to root for because of her cynical bitterness. She hasn't quite abandoned God, but she's set Him aside to wallow in her pain. Without creating the goody-two-shoes cheery caricature of a Christian, Cynthia manages to endow Jen with inimitable compassion and a heart after God that exudes His strength when both of them realize the intense demands of this somewhat hopeless journey.
I can't imagine the intensity of pain involved in losing a child (though I know what it feels like just to consider it), and I know the statistics are generally poor for couples who've lost a child staying together. Between guilt and blame many don't survive the tragedy. That doesn't make it any easier to embrace a character who's chosen to indulge the pain and condemn her husband in a passive aggressive way while failing to reason that a man and a father might have to grieve differently and suffer through blaming himself. However, Cynthia somehow manages to inject just enough low-level charisma in Libby as she battles through surviving the physical wilderness of their trip and the utter wilderness of her soul.
About two-thirds of the way through the novel, Cynthia switches to capture Greg's venture in third person, his reasoning and personal pain, his desire for change of all significant kinds. It's clear he's a good man who's suffered every bit as deeply as his wife, and we can't help but wonder how this is all gonna end for this couple.
And that's for you to find out because if you want to read a novel that takes a good hard look at two people who've suffered loss and can't cope, They Almost Always Come Home is a well-written and unique approach to what seems to be a common storyline of late. These characters live on the page, drawing the reader into their psyches, exposing their hard and soft spots, their weaknesses and faith, their sheer pain and loss of hope. Secondary characters are well-developed and draw us to them. The undercurrent of Christianity is solid and organic and is contrasted to religion in subtle ways that deliver gut-level reality checks as the four characters surge deeper into the their own wilderness experiences. Very good first novel.
Father, I know you will continue to inspire Cynthia to use the gift you've given her. I pray there are many more meaningful stories to follow this one. Please bless her in all she does to honor you. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.