Review: Last Stop on the 6

Last Stop on the 6 by Patricia Dunn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is one of the few books I've read this year that is going on my 'comfort book' shelf. These are the books that I periodically pull out to read to give myself a lift or soothe myself. This was also a quick read, one that you could probably do in a day or less. As an added bonus, if you have Kindle Unlimited it will be a book that you can read under the Unlimited rules.

This book is filled with what some may feel is inappropriate language.  It is set against the backdrop of the start of the Gulf War. This book also deals with some very serious issues that may be hot buttons for some. Drug addiction, rape, and alcoholism, to name a few.

I loved this book tremendously!  I don't know if this is because of  my Italian heritage; well, Italian Hungarian (almost the same thing family-wise!!!)

This is a growth story, a story about what happens when we run away from our troubles and what happens when we lie and/or assume too much.

This story was funny, sad, exciting, and frustrating but primarily amusing. At least it was funny if you know anything about this type of Italian enclave.

I could visualize these characters without the author getting overly wordy. I could smell the gravy bubbling on the stove without a lot of descriptive terminologies. Instead, the author writes with a conciseness that I very much appreciate and love.

This is one of the best books I have read lately, and my kudos go out to the author.

*ARC was supplied by the publisher  Bordighera Press, the author, and NetGalley.

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SYNOPSIS: "LAST STOP ON THE 6 is the return of the prodigal daughter to a world of long-buried hurts, political complexities, and female resilience. Dunn introduces characters of all possessing questions for which there are no easy answers - only the slow and steady re-awakenings of familial bonds and moral responsibility.

Angela Campanosi fled her home in the Italian-American enclave of Pelham Bay, the Bronx, after an accident left her brother, Jimmy, an up-and-coming actor, paralyzed. Now, ten years later, on the eve of Jimmy’s wedding, anti-war activist Angela returns home from LA to grapple with the guilt, secrets, and idiosyncrasies that make family, family. What could possibly go wrong? 

For starters, the groom has disappeared, leaving behind only a cryptic note and his rotating collection of plastic patron saints on his nightstand. Angela’s asthmatic mother insists on keeping Jimmy’s fiancée in the dark; her father, three years sober, goes on a bender; Angela’s ex-boyfriend has taken over running the family exterminating business; and her stepfather just wants to feed everyone, even vegetarian Angela, some of his meat gravy.

Angela embarks on a search for Jimmy through the old neighborhood, discovering in the process that our perceptions about people—even ourselves—can be wrong, and that family is something far more potent than blood.

Set against the backdrop of the Gulf War and the millions of people who filled the streets in protest (reminiscent of today’s activism), LAST STOP ON THE 6  is a hilarious, subversive, deeply moving tale."