cover image A Theory of All Things

A Theory of All Things

Peggy Leon, . . Permanent, $28 (272pp) ISBN 978-1-57962-195-7

In Leon’s second novel (after Mother Country ) the Bennetts, a pleasingly dysfunctional family, grapple with troubling events from their childhood: their mother’s abandonment and brother Peter’s suicide. Now scattered, the family keeps in touch via e-mails and phone messages. Mary is living in the family home, caring for their father stricken with Alzheimer’s. Her thoughtful narration grounds the book, which is otherwise filled with eccentric chapters from her siblings’ points of view. Each individually complains of a dilemma and begs to be rescued. Brother Mark is the outcast—a physicist in a family of artists who must bail the youngest, Luke, out of jail and look after their father while Mary goes to fetch pregnant Ellie from a Greek island. Eventually, the whole family reunites, along with a homeless woman, a skeptical girlfriend, a tattooed runaway, and a shabby mutt, to hash out their disturbed past. The characters are always on the verge of a breakdown, but their epiphanies save them (and us) from emotional exhaustion. Despite overused metaphors, Leon’s novel touches on very real familial issues yet maintains a playful tone. (Mar.)