Nashvillian Phyllis Gobbell’s latest novel, Prodigal, tells the story of a son’s homecoming after a decade in hiding.
A single gunshot at the Back Home Market changed everything for the clerk who was shot, the juvenile delinquent who pulled the trigger, and the Baptist preacher’s son who ran away, leaving everything he knew and loved, sure it was forever.
Connor Burdette is the youngest son of Daniel, a well-meaning minister, and his wife, Kitty. The couple have raised Connor and his older siblings Ivy and Russ in the small Tennessee community of Montpier, “a patriotic little town, a God-fearing town, a love-your-neighbor town.” Connor, at 19, has always been known as the preacher’s boy, kind and gentle, so it comes as a surprise to everyone when he finds himself involved in a convenience store shooting with fellow youth Joe Ray Loomis. After the cashier takes a bullet to the leg, Connor and Joe Ray book it out of the parking lot, and Connor does not stop, leaving town for good without a word of goodbye to anyone. His family doesn’t know if he is alive or dead, but they keep hoping because what is there to do but wait and pray for the day their boy returns home?
The opening chapter gives a quick account of the incident at the Back Home Market, then we skip forward 10 years and meet Connor’s grandmother, Lady Burdette, who has always been a distant and calculating woman. She possesses enormous wealth, which she does not share easily. Since her husband’s death, she has preferred to keep to herself in her massive house, emerging to play tennis at the country club but rarely to spend time with her family. She’s certainly not one to seek help or advice: “[A]nyone who meddled in Lady’s business had better have a goddamned good reason,” Gobbell writes. “She didn’t care much for lawyers or doctors or preachers — her son notwithstanding — but they were all sometimes a necessary evil.”
However, one day she unexpectedly gives Ivy a call and leaves a voicemail demanding that her granddaughter come over to discuss something important. Ivy is surprised and puzzled by the message, and she rushes to Lady’s house, only to discover that her grandmother doesn’t seem to be home.
Ivy doesn’t think too much of the incident, but when she mentions it to her father that night at dinner, Daniel is quick to investigate. They find Lady sprawled at the bottom of the stairs, dead. Her death and the mysterious circumstances around it act as a proverbial gunshot in the quiet town, sparking rumors and gossip about both her passing and the the disbursement of her sizable estate.
Connor’s sudden reappearance in Montpier the day after Lady’s death only fuels further gossip. Did he have something to do with her demise? Many are suspicious of him, and some townspeople are outright confrontational. What’s more, Lady made a major change to her will just before she died, and its new reference to Connor shrouds him in doubt from friends and family alike.
Prodigal is told through multiple points of view from various characters, providing glimpses inside the continuous unraveling of this seemingly tight-knit family and the many secrets they hide. Gobbell’s writing style is familiar and cozy, like curling up on a couch with a warm beverage and listening to family members share stories. The initial conflict of the shooting at the market is only the first in a long line of twists and turns in the narrative. As we meet more characters and uncover further secrets, we find ourselves rooting for the most unlikely of heroines.
Prodigal is a well-crafted debut in the Southern literary novel genre from a practiced voice in true crime and mysteries.
Abby N. Lewis is from Dandridge, Tennessee. She is the author of the full-length poetry collection Reticent and the forthcoming collection Aquakineticist, as well as two chapbooks.
Tagged: Book Reviews, Fiction
