Principles of Navigation: Book Review

By Wendy Robards

Principles of Navigation, by Lynn Sloan.

Fixing the broken had become his theme, personally and professionally, as he'd told Wolf, letting his friend assume "personal" meant his home remodeling and "professional" meant Rolly was back to creative work. But he wasn't. - from Principles of Navigation -

Alice and Rolly Becotte are married and living in Indiana in 1999, on the cusp of a new century. Alice is a local reporter, and Rolly is an art professor at a small college. They are at a crossroads in their marriage -- Alice desperately wants a baby, while Rolly yearns to develop his art and is afraid that parenthood will rob him of his dreams of artistic success. When Alice finally conceives, the fault lines widen, and then everything changes when they must deal with devastating news.

Lynn Sloan's first novel is a moving portrayal of a marriage unraveling. An accomplished short fiction writer, Sloan knows how to distill a story down to its essential parts without losing character or emotion. With a talent for exploring psychological tension, Sloan creates a haunting and poignant tale of love and loss, and the difficult choices we face when two people begin to grow in opposite directions.

Principles of Navigation is one of those novels which could easily be overlooked among the best selling genre novels, but that would be an utter shame for those readers who love literary fiction. Published by a small literary press (Fomite), this is a book which reeled me in slowly. I wanted to know how or if Alice and Rolly would sort out their lives. I grew to care about them both. Any writer who can keep me thinking of their characters even after I have finished reading their story, is an author I can highly recommend.

If you love literary fiction, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Principles of Navigation -- I promise you won't be disappointed.

Highly Recommended.

FTC Disclosure: I recieved this book from the publisher for review on my blog.

Rating System

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ = Excellent
★ ★ ★ ★ = Good/Very Good
★ ★ ★ = Okay read
★ ★ = Not recommended
★ = Ugh! Don't waste your time.

Catch all of Wendy Robard's reviews and her quilting finesse in her fabulous blog, "Caribousmom".