Bloodlines

Bloodli(n)es is a multi-character novel that illuminates one dysfunctional family in contemporary society where "the norm" remains, undoubtedly, mostly in the minds of idealists still rooted in the conservative Fifties. The Forest family members narrate individual and separate alienation from each other and themselves in this poem novel where the House, an invisible protagonist, has the most to say regarding daughters' and sons' estrangement from parents and each other. As heirs to the mental disorder of their dead father, four of the five siblings have scattered to different states in America in an attempt to ignore their past while building new lives. However, each of them, unwittingly, perpetuates the dysfunctional cycle. Jana, Ross, Jr., Tim and Beth spin in their own orbits while Rose, the firstborn, visits most often Vera, the widowed mother, and brother/caregiver Ross, Jr. Beth's debut poetry book, Through the Mirror, serves symbolically to reignite sibling liaisons in conflict with the youngest daughter's blatant characterization of an abnormal family (based on her own personal experience and memories.) Epiphanies and transformations occur, although few and far between, in this realistic rendering of a broken family unit that also includes the voice of Ross, Sr., the ghost, and the House communicate emotions, opinions and sentiments heretofore unverbalized. Bloodlines are Blood Lies until family members face the truth of responsibility at the heart of their bonds.