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Feb 29, 2016 Web Exclusive By Frank Valish

Francis Falbo’s life is a mess. He’s 36 years old. His wife left him. His mother died. He inherited his family home in the Midwest, which he now rents out in apartment units to a strange collection of tenants. And he’s developed agoraphobia, rarely leaving his attic room, an unkempt disaster of a man at the end of his rope.

Falbo’s plight is the subject of Adam Rapp’s novel Know Your Beholder, initially released in 2015 and now available in paperback. If you missed Know Your Beholder on its initial pressing, don’t miss it again. Rapp’s tale is an immersing page-turner. He often makes light of his protagonist’s sad situation and highlights the inherent humor that lies underneath a life in shambles. Falbo, in all his decadent misery, is surrounded by a curious cast of characters: the art student who paints nudes and sets them within slavery narratives, the old widowed gentleman who finds himself an amateur thespian, the couple whose daughter has mysteriously disappeared, and a man bereft of affect whose past is shrouded in mystery.

As clichéd a plot device as it may be, a tornado and its aftermath function as the book’s climactic moment and facilitate resolution. Nevertheless, Know Your Beholder is a humorous and thought-provoking revelation of a troubled soul, one who finds comfort in the smallest things, a touch, a hug, a shared cigarette, and then imbues these moments with perfect misplaced significance, undue worth, and meaning felt only by the protagonist himself. By the end, Falbo’s issues have not resolved but he just may be on the path to redemption and renewal. (www.hatchettebookgroup.com)

Author rating: 7.5/10