Better You Go Home

by Scott Driscoll

Better You Go Home, a literary novel that combines the amiable frankness of Charles Baxter’s Feast of Love with the slow-burning tension of Sandor Márai’s Embers, takes the reader to Prague shortly after the Velvet Revolution.

Chico Lenoch, a Seattle attorney, wonders why his Czech father refuses to contact family left behind the Iron Curtain. Searching through his father’s attic after the Velvet Revolution, Chico discovers letters dated four decades earlier revealing the existence of a half-sister. Hoping to find his forgotten sister and unearth the secrets his father has buried all these years, he travels to the Czech Republic. There is self-interest behind Chico’s quest. Most urgently, he is nearing kidney failure and needs a donor organ. None of his relatives are a suitable match. Could his sister be a candidate? Chico also meets Milada, a beautiful doctor who helps him navigate the obstacles to finding his sister. While Chico idealizes his father’s homeland, Milada feels trapped. Is she really attracted to him, or is he a means of escape to the United States? Chico confronts a moral dilemma as well. If he broaches the subject of his need for a kidney, does he become complicit with his father and the Big Shots of that generation who’ve already robbed her of so much?

[Taken directly from author's site]

Genres: Literary Fiction

236 pages, Paperback

First published September 12, 2013

About the author

Scott Driscoll, an award-winning writing instructor at the University of Washington, Continuing and Professional Education, took several years to finish Better You Go Home (October 2013, Coffeetown Press), a novel that grew out of the exploration of the Czech side of his family in the 1990s after Eastern Europe was liberated. Driscoll keeps busy teaching and freelancing stories to airline magazines while starting work on his next novel.

Reviews

[Jayne Charles · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the idea behind this novel: Chico, the American son of a Czech immigrant, travels to his father’s homeland attempting to trace the half sister whose existence he only recently learned of. Chico is diabetic and also needs a kidney transplant, and the half-sister could be a possible donor. The question of whether he is tracing her simply for this purpose is left intriguingly open. Wondering how such a situation might resolve itself was the principal reason I kept reading. Quite a question of etiquette: how long do you have to know someone before requesting one of their vital organs?

The writing throughout is technically very competent, and the image of the Czech Republic that emerges reminded me very much of a trip I made across that country not long after this novel is set. Outside of the tourist mecca that is Prague, I found the country grey and very much scarred by the years behind the Iron Curtain. This comes through clearly in the novel.

Unfortunately, the main event plot-wise is a shockingly convoluted family affair involving disputed paternity with some communism and torture thrown in. The search for the half-sister took us across country, visiting various characters who all merged into one in my head. Names kept cropping up and I had no idea who they referred to. Of this whole massive section of the book I probably understood about five per cent. To properly comprehend it I would need to go back to the start, get a piece of paper and draw some kind of mind map, or a family tree at the very least. I didn’t do that, because none of the characters were warm or engaging enough to make me want to tackle the task.

[Laura Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please note: The ‘review’ of this book (which was donated to The Magnolia Blossom review for the sole purpose of a review) was completed by The MBR’s owner, L. Avery Brown based on a Rubric she designed. If you would like to read the entire review which includes an in depth author interview – please visit The Magnolia Blossom Review’s site online today! Thank you.

And Now for the Review...
1. Book Title – 5 of 5
For the Reviewer: Use this space to writer your impression of the book's title. Did it grab your attention right away? (5) Was it ho hum? (3) Would you glance at it and then forget it? (1) What do you think the author might consider for future book titles? (You should have plenty of space for each item on the form as I think I set it up for the boxes to 'grow'.)
It almost has a musical quality to it - and that greatly appealed to me. I definitely felt draw in by the way the title was worded. After all, he could have written it probably a 100 different ways ... but upon reflection one can almost 'hear' the sound of someone in a East European country saying in a thick accent to someone, a stranger looking for answers that no one seems to want to give, 'Better You Go Home.' (Can't you just hear it, too?)

2. Book Cover– 5 of 5
For the Reviewer: Use this space to writer your impression of the book's cover. Did it grab your attention? (5) Was it ho hum? (3) Did it look like it was haphazardly thrown together? (1) What do you think the author might consider for future book covers? Did it help make the title more effective?
I immediately got an 'Old World' feeling when I looked at the shadowed image of the man with the suitcase as he looks out onto what is obviously an 'old' section of Europe based on the brick/cobblestone street and the flat faced buildings. But it took me a second to realize what in the world the red/white/blue coloring around the 'photo' image in the center was. Then it dawned on me 'it's a flag'...and I thought okay...that's pretty smart, the crux of this story has a traveler (the man with the suitcase) venturing far from home where he winds up literally IN another country... very smart!

3. First 500... - 10 of 10
For the Reviewer: Thinking of the first 500 (usually about 2 pages) words of the book, do you think the author provided enough incentive to urge the reader to continue? What stood out to you the most? Were you captivated after a couple of paragraphs? Did the 1st sentence grab you? Did you get to around the 500 word mark and didn't have a clue where the story was going?
Driscoll provides his readers with a tremendous, powerful opening that's powerful, ironically, because it's so very quiet. It begins in a simple church, Chico (the protagonist searching for his long lost half-sister) is with Milada (who we learn is a doctor who, even though she's medically trained, still believes in medical mysteries) and they're discussing the power of 'Bambino' (a statue with some sort of miraculous ability to cure the ill)...which is so odd when it's juxtaposed against the fact that Chico doesn't seem all that interested in the notion of a 'faith based' cure for his (what will eventually be fatal) renal failure due to diabetes. Just as the title spoke to me with that heavy accent - I can hear Milada's heavily accented voice - even though Driscoll doesn't intentionally write in 'how she sounds'. Rather he does it through the way she says things in English - which obviously isn't her first language. In those First 500 words the reader is drawn into the story of 'how' Chico's sister became 'long lost' (especially since he didn't even know about her until about a year earlier). We can almost hear his impatience with Milada because he really wants to just get on with the job of finding his sister and yet they're in that church. So odd, so 'old world' - So good!

4. Blurb Effectiveness – 10 of 10
For the Reviewer: Now that you've finished the book, please take a moment to look back over the blurb. How effective do you think the blurb will be to potential readers? Did the author write a blurb that was enticing and went along with the story? (10) Was the blurb lacking? (5) Was it entirely too long or too short? (1) Do you have any suggestions for the author to make it more effective?
I imagine Scott Driscoll worked a LONG time to get his blurb to be so spot on. In that short bit of space we know the impetus behind Chico Lenoch's desperate need to find his sister. It's hinted to that there are serious reasons as to WHY his sister was never mentioned. And we know that somewhere along the way, the woman who is helping him, a doctor named Milada, might be using him to get out of the Czech Republic - or maybe she really does care for him. It's definitely the sort of blurb that grabs readers who may gravitate towards different genres because it hints to overlapping and that's a great thing!

5. Age Recommendation/Genre Classification – 10 of 10
For the Reviewer: Age Recommendation: If the book is entirely too young/juvenile for the intended age group? Is it entirely too mature? (Please take into account swearing/sexual scenes/drug use, etc...For the Genre: - Was the book listed as a thrill ride of a read but was more of a bumper car ride (sort of all over the place)? Was it listed as a mystery and you simply had to turn the page to find out 'who did it'?
I'm not really sure if there was a specific 'age recommendation' - it's definitely not for kids, it's not older YA, and it's not erotica (meaning ONLY for the 18+ crowd). But it's clear to see that BYGH is intended for mature readers who can relate to the plight of Chico. When the request for review was received at The MBR, it was listed as Contemporary Literary Fiction which is 'book speak' for 'It's a story that deals with issues that are current and has a lot of crossover within it...for this title, the crossovers are romance, espionage, thriller, adventure, and believe it or not 'travel guide' (that sounds weird but if you read the descriptions of the locations, it makes perfect sense!

6. Presentation/Format – 10 of 10
For the Reviewer: Did the 'innards' of the book follow a clear, concise, standard format throughout the book? Or did you have a hard time keeping up with paragraphs or dialogue? Were multiple fonts used? Were they distracting?
Terrific. (I will say when I opened it in one format - the entire thing was centered) but then I opened it in a different reader and it worked just fine.

7. Theme/Originality - 10 of 10
For the Reviewer: Was this book something you'd never read? Or was it formulaic and a 'rehash' of a popular tale/current 'pop' genre? If it was a retelling - did the author make it feel fresh and just different enough that it kept you involved?
Riveting story. I don't think I've read any sort of story wherein the driving need for the story starts out because of a medical crisis but then changes SO dramatically. Really good. One has to wonder how Driscoll came up with this story. Was it something he put together based on bits and pieces of real life stories? 'Man needs transplant - finds lost sibling', 'Man travels overseas in search of long lost sibling'...that sort of thing. (I'm not sure if those are 'real life' stories - but they and the whole premise for this book seems like it could have been ripped from the headlines!

8. Description/Enhancement - 10 of 10
For the Reviewer: Did the author use descriptive language and 'all those extra little things' to make it the best it could be? Did you feel it was too sparse in description? Did the author go OVER board with the description?
Like I said earlier, reading the book made me feel like I was sitting alongside the character listening to them speaking with their accents and broken English and whatnot. And the descriptions of the locations was really impressive! Did Driscoll travel to the Czech Republic and/or areas around it before writing it? If so, is that one of the things that led him to write the book?

9. Intrigue - 9 of 10
For the Reviewer: Did you want to turn the next page because it was SO good? (10) Was it interesting but you didn't quite have an urge to keep reading? (5) Did you think 'I wonder if we have Twinkies in the pantry? Mmmmm, Twinkies' while you read? (1)
Really liked it. Yes, there were a few sort of dull 'building' moments - but for the most part, the level of intrigue generally stayed above the norm.

10. Grammar/Mechanics - 10 of 10
For the Reviewer: Was the book pretty darn flawless? (10) Did you see more that 5 or 10 'jump out' at you mistakes in grammar or the actual mechanics (verb tense, noun/pronoun agreement, misused words) ? (5) Did you feel it was a chore to read because it was riddled with errors? (1)
This is interesting because there are so many intentional grammar errors because of the way the nonEnglish as a first language characters speak that I sort of had to turn off my 'that is wrong - wrong - wrong!' filter!

11. Overall Impression - 10 of 10
For the Reviewer: When all is said in done - did you enjoy the book? Would you recommend it to others?
I really enjoyed 'Better You Go Home' by Scott Driscoll. It's one of the better 'contemporary literary fiction' stories I've read in a while. It's well worth shelling out about $7 for the eBook (I think the Kindle price is $6.95 - currently - but you always have to check because sometimes the prices vary!) Coffeetown Press (a small independent publishing group) got very lucky with Scott Driscoll as I'm sure he's got quite a future ahead of him! Way to go Scott and way to go Coffeetown Press...it's always nice to see Independent Authors who find a home a smaller publishing houses - it gives the rest of us IAs hope that there's a small house out there just waiting for us to 'come home!'

THE BESTOWING OF THE BLOSSOMS...
Scott Driscoll's Better You Go Home has earned 99 out of 100 points (drat those few little lulls in the story!) and that means it deserves all 5 Big Beautiful Blossoms! It's a story that starts out with an air of subtle intrigue and urgency which hooks readers from the very start. It's a wholly realistic sort of contemporary literary/thriller/espionage/romance book that I have no doubt will appeal to readers of multiple genres. That's not the sort of thing I often say about books because they're often so very 'genre specific' or they're sort of 'so all over the place with odd plots' that it's difficult to take the story seriously. But not this one! Honestly, this is definitely the sort of book I could see easily being made into a movie. Great job Mr. Driscoll.

[Mark Oppenlander · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Scott Driscoll's debut novel, we meet Chico Lenoch, a Seattle attorney and a diabetic desperately in need of a kidney transplant. The child of immigrants, Chico sometimes wonders why his father will not talk about his childhood and adolescence behind the Iron Curtain. In his father's belongings, Chico finds letters many decades old and realizes that he may still have a half sister in the Czech Republic. Against his doctor's wishes, he travels overseas in search of answers about his family's history and, just possibly, a compatible donor.

An unusual book, Better You Go Home works as a medical and political thriller and also as a family drama and immigrant's tale. In style it falls somewhere between literary fiction and a noir mystery. However, this unique blend of elements also makes it hard to review. At times the strange stew worked for me, whereas at other times, I felt the pieces were fighting against each other, leaving me merely confused.

Overall, I appreciated the characters the most; they felt very human and complex. Chico partners with Milada, a beautiful Czech doctor, who helps him navigate the strange Eastern European world his father left behind. They both have mixed motives for their partnership, as well as a dangerous attraction to each other (Milada is married and has kids while Chico is divorced). Driscoll's prose has a stop and go quality to it that took a little getting used to for me. However, once I settled into his rhythms I found his dialogue and descriptions engaging. The reader gets a fascinating picture of insular small-town life in Eastern Europe and the ways in which the residents attempted to ride out the rise and fall of various political factions and ideologies.

The ending disappointed me. There are a lot of characters in this book with competing agendas, so you know that something will have to give. The cast comes together for a celebration (of sorts) in a dilapidated old building that has a lot of history and memories for the various actors in the drama. As one might see in a stage drama or a film, there are a number of twists and turns in the final scene, with characters revealing their true feelings and intentions one at a time. However I didn't find all of thee plot devices completely believable. Instead, the big revelations felt forced and a little melodramatic and so the emotional payoff was not as hearty as I had hoped.

Still, there is much to enjoy in this book. Whether one reads it as a character study, a travelogue, a thriller or a history lesson, you probably won't regret the ride. For me the big test with a first novel is whether or not I would read a book by the same author again . . . and the answer to that question is yes. I look forward to seeing what Driscoll does next.

[Connie Jasperson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Today I am dipping into the world of literary fiction, with Better You Go Home by indie author Scott Driscoll.

Technically this is a medical thriller, but the atmosphere of mystery and illusion, combined with the harsh other-world quality of the old Czech Republic make this novel a fantasy of a time gone by.

The BLURB:
Seattle attorney Chico Lenoch wonders why his Czech father refuses to contact family left behind the Iron Curtain. Searching through his father’s attic after the Velvet Revolution, Chico discovers letters dated four decades earlier revealing the existence of a half-sister. He travels to the Czech Republic to find his forgotten sister and unearth the secrets his father has buried all these years. There is self-interest behind Chico’s quest. Most urgently, he is nearing kidney failure and needs a donor organ. None of his relatives are a suitable match. Could his sister be a candidate? Chico also meets Milada, a beautiful doctor who helps him navigate the obstacles to finding his sister. While Chico idealizes his father’s homeland, Milada feels trapped. Is she really attracted to him, or is he a means of escape to the United States? Chico confronts a moral dilemma as well. If he approaches his sister about his need for a kidney, does he become complicit with his father and the Big Shots of that generation who've already robbed her of so much?

My REVIEW:
I loved this book. Driscoll takes a little step back in time with this tale. He gets into the workings of human nature, of who we are, who we think we are, and how others see us.

Chico is an intriguing character. The tale is told in the first person, which I usually find difficult to get into as a reader, but didn't in this case. Also something I usually find off putting but didn't in this case is the way Chico occasionally 'breaks the fourth wall'--he sometimes addresses the reader directly. It works, because you are in his head the whole time and it feels perfectly natural.

An attorney, Chico is a fiercely independent man. An example of that independent streak is that he is nearly blind, and yet he insists on driving despite his friends' pleas, because, like a windshield, he can somewhat clear his vision when it gets foggy.

Despite his independent streak and his analytical nature, Chico's childhood memories are illusions and he only begins to realize it when he gets to Písečná. His father is not the man he believed him to be, and nothing is what he expected. Unable to stop thinking like a lawyer Chico asks questions and uncovers a family secret with far-reaching consequences.

The situation he finds his sister Anezka, in is serious and fraught with danger, the Czech Republic is a treacherous, alien world, and like an onion, truth there is concealed beneath many layers. Suffering, hardship, and betrayal lurk around every corner, but sharply juxtaposed against the grimness of that reality is intense beauty. At the heart of this tale are the lengths even the most ruthless of people will go to for a fantasy, an ideal.

Driscoll's narrative draws you in and holds you spellbound to the last dramatic moment. He takes you to a world that is at times incomprehensible to western eyes, and immerses you in that culture. The way the authorities work, the absolute power certain people enjoy is shown with heartbreaking clarity. Love and loss, trust and betrayal, jealousy and all stops in-between--emotions drive this plot to it's stunning conclusion.

This is not genre fiction, instead it is written for mature, dedicated readers who want substance in a book. No fluff here, just good solid craftsmanship. I give it five full stars.

[Theresa Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a unique book. Part mystery, part race against time, part love story with a strong dose of political thriller thrown in, this book was conceived when Scott, already a published and award-winning author, went to the Czech Republic to explore his own family roots with his father.

Seattle attorney, Chico Lenoch, is a long-term diabetic, on the verge of renal failure and in desperate need of a kidney. By accident, he learns that he may have a half sister in the Czech Republic who may qualify as a donor.

As the reader is propelled from the Pacific Northwest to Eastern Europe, Scott offers an insight into a wounded populace whose paranoia is often justified as the brutal nature of the Soviet Block lives on shortly after the fall of the Iron Curtain. As he searches for his sister, family history emerges, secrets are revealed and love blooms in the midst of the excruciating symptoms of a deadly disease.

Peppered throughout with Czech dialog, this vivid novel portrays the squalor and decay of a ravaged country, a living culture rich in history and an intimate portrait of a family that carries the scars of the Cold War years. Better You Go Home is hard to put down. A most memorable and satisfying read.

[John Marsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

They say the past is a foreign country. In Better You Go Home, Scott Driscoll's substantive, thought-provoking and enjoyable novel, the narrator explores his family's past in a foreign country. The challenge is for this middle-aged American to understand the choices and compromises people have made to survive in an authoritarian regime, and how old enmities are affected when the regime changes. No one is innocent.

The novel takes place mostly in the Czech Republic in the mid-1990s, after the Soviet Union has splintered. The narrator, Chico Lenoch, has learned he may have a half-sister living there, born to a lover left behind when Chico's father escaped the oncoming Nazis before World War II. The fact that Chico is diabetic, and desperately needs a new kidney, spurs his search and complicates his motivations.

Despite the heavy topics, there are good doses of humor. The characters are real, complex people. The atmosphere is superb. Though thoughtful, the tension is well paced and never flags.

As Chico searches, learning more about his father and the life and community he departed decades before, but never really left behind, the novel builds to a climatic and satisfying ending. An excellent read.

[Katherine Kirkpatrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

“At once an immigrant story, a medical thriller, and a tale of love. Driscoll keeps all the skeins taut in his hand.” Reviewer Kathryn Trueblood put it well and succinctly. In this beautifully crafted novel, Seattle attorney Chico Lenoch makes a succession of trips, the final one with his father, to the Czech Republic to find the half sister he never knew. Father and son are bound to each other and to a handful of Czech relations and the father’s former neighbors by a mesh of harsh memories and remembered passions, stretching back to more than forty years earlier when Chico’s father fled the Nazi regime with another man’s wife. Driscoll’s strength lies in his ability to enter into the hearts and minds of a number of varied characters. He writes with hard, spare prose and a poet’s artistry; occasional shimmering sentences call out to be read more than once. The dialogue, interspersed with Czech words and phrases, is expertly done. The story is set within a political context that is convincingly rendered. Here is a deftly woven, deeply felt narrative about revelation, loss, family ties, passions and betrayal, coping with the wake of violence and war, and about everyday people trying to sort out right from wrong in complex situations where there can be no moral certainty.

[Randee Baty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is different than what I normally read but I requested it in a LibraryThing giveaway because of it's setting in the Czech Republic. My family is Czech and we recently visited Prague and the small town my family came from so this interested me. The story itself takes some getting use to. I felt that I had come into the middle of the story with little explanation and was supposed to figure out quite a bit of it for myself. It involves the main character traveling to the Czech Republic to look for his half sister whom he had just recently found out about. He's in need of a kidney transplant and is hoping she will be willing to help him.
There is a lot of convoluted family history that you have to figure out without many clues, there is a lot of history of the Nazi and Soviet occupations that is not clearly explained so you need to be fairly secure in your knowledge of these time periods of history. It kept me reading and the story lines intrigued me but I think a little more clarity would have made this a much better book.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

A journey into Czechoslovakia's modern times and the haunting legacy of Iron Curtain travails. For Chico Lenoch, the past is relentlessly present as he seeks both rescue from imminent kidney failure, and to free his half-sister from abandonment and torture. "Peel away the American skin and you will find deep deep loyalty to family." Milada says amid the ashes of conflagration. Chico's quest unfolds against a backdrop of manipulation, humiliation, torture, and rage, an ever-present reality of Eastern Europe's Iron Curtain world.

[Priscilla Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

Better You Go Home is a father/son story of return to the old country, to things the father had thought best forgotten, to a lost sister. Threaded through Chico's quest for his sister and for the truth of the past is a love story. Chico's dire need for a kidney transplant puts a twist of suspense into everything that happens. Highly recommended.

[Colleen Story · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Driscoll writes beautifully. This is a heartfelt story that helped me understand more what it's like to be the child of a parent who was displaced at a young age from his or her beloved home in another country. Also a story of fathers and sons and old family secrets that have a way of being revealed when they need to be.

[Gabriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Story! Couldn't put it down.

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Days after finishing, characters and images from this book have stayed with me...