Memory and Desire

Note from Phil:

My latest novel, Memory and Desire, which Arcade Publishing will bring out in September 2023, is a story about love and the persistence of love, about desire and desire remembered, and the reunion of a fifty-year-old man with a son he fathered out of wedlock in his youth. The three central characters, Luke Blackburn, his brilliant but troubled wife, Maureen, and Luke’s former lover, Corinne Terrebonne, take the reader on a journey that leads to betrayals, painful discoveries, and eventually, to acceptance.

Book summary

From the acclaimed storyteller Philip Caputo, a tale of desire, betrayal, duty, and infidelity—and the explosive consequences of a buried passion.

The newsman in Luke Blackburn shuns the spotlight when he and his old friend, now the county mayor in Key West, discover stranded Cuban refugees during a fishing outing turned tragic, but he is part of the story that goes out on the wire. When Corinne, his lover from many years ago, happens to read it and reaches out, the news she bears will disrupt his carefully orchestrated life and threatens to blow up his marriage.

Luke’s wife, Maureen, lace-curtain Irish while he was from Appalachia, is a brilliant scholar who is also bipolar and fragile. He has never told Maureen about his youthful passion or the infant that Corinne, barely out of her teenage years, gave up at birth when they split and he went to war. Maureen’s illness has meant that she and Luke have foregone having children of their own. In Luke’s mind, she cannot find out about Corinne or the child.

Meanwhile, in Miami, where Luke works as the managing editor at a newspaper struggling to survive in the digital era, his star investigative reporter is slowly piecing together a blockbuster story zeroing in on the corrupting influence of cartel money in south Florida. The evidence she has uncovered links a flashy real estate developer, a legacy of murky land dealings, and the stink of political corruption in Luke’s own refuge, Key West.

 

Early review from Booklist

“Newspaperman and Vietnam veteran Luke Blackburn is fighting a battle on multiple fronts. New owners at the paper have increased focus on the profit margins, requiring Luke, a managing editor, to make drastic payroll cuts. At home, Luke remains vigilant should his brilliant wife, Maureen, a Joyce scholar with bipolar disorder, have another manic episode. Luke’s one reprieve is his fishing excursions with his best friend, Mike, mayor of Key West. On one such trip, Luke and Mike rescue Cuban refugees who have washed up on shore, making newsman Luke the news story. When Luke’s former lover, Corinne, sees the article, she reconnects with some more startling news: the son they gave up for adoption has been in touch and needs a parole sponsor. Meanwhile, one of Luke’s ace reporters is onto a big scoop regarding a controversial land deal that involves money laundering and a Columbian cartel. Caputo’s (Hunter’s Moon, 2019) fluid yarn unspools at just the right pace, ultimately knitting together the themes of loyalty, betrayal, unbreakable bonds, and the lingering taste of a long-ago passion.”