Buckeye: A Read with Jenna Pick: A Novel

A lifetime of experiences.

Hosted by Kelli Stevens

Beautifully written. Loved it!

Buckeye is a beautifully written and emotionally powerful story that pulled me in from the first pages. Patrick Ryan captures family, identity, and trauma with honesty and depth, creating characters that feel incredibly real. The writing is vivid, engaging, and at times hard to put down. A moving and memorable read

Patrick Ryan’s “Buckeye” is a diorama of sorts of a period in American life from post-Depression to just past the Vietnam War. It travels through an idea of America through the ages. It deeply explores the America that destroys its families and young people through war. It is also the story of an America going through changes marked by social justice, economic upheaval, and technological innovation. How fitting then is it that Buckeye takes place in a place like Ohio. A place so impacted by all these changes over time as to act as a visual history of our times. Patrick Ryan has included all the hallmarks of great novels. He covers multiple generations, every emotion in the spectrum, and deep philosophical questions about life purpose, meaning, belonging, and more. By a third of the way through the book, I knew I wasn’t going to have a clean assessment of it that fit neatly into a rating or a review. This response has nothing to do with how I received the book in terms of enjoyment but instead what the author is challenging us to sit with. There is real meat on the bone here, and it often reminded me of Jonathan Franzen’s style and works. Similarly, I find myself wrestling with the stories of people who I don’t readily identify with but can see and grasp their experiences as if they were right in front of me. Ultimately, the struggles, the joys, complex characters, and engaging chapters make this one a worthwhile read. The quote offered in the book by Thomas Aquinas speaks volumes for what Patrick Ryan was trying to convey in this book: “The things that we love tell us what we are.”