My Darling Boy

by John Dufresne

A brilliant and gut-wrenching novel about a father and son from a “generous and lyric storyteller” (San Francisco Chronicle).

Known for his tragicomic voice and unforgettable characters, John Dufresne tells the story of Olney, whose beloved son, Cully, collapses into addiction and vanishes into the chaotic netherworld of southern Florida. Aided by his terminally ill girlfriend and the colorful inhabitants of a local motel—including a doomsday prepper, an ex-nun, a pair of blind twins with an acute sense of smell, and a devoutly Catholic shelter worker—Olney sets out to save his son. Hilarious and devastating in equal measure, My Darling Boy is a hero’s quest for our time, a testament to families touched by the opioid crisis, and a remarkable achievement from one of our most talented authors.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Addiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 14, 2025

About the author

John Dufresne teaches in the Master of Fine Arts Creative Writing program at Florida International University. He is a French-Canadian born in America.

Reviews

[Thom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overly packed with characters with oddball names, which I suppose it meant to make them quirky but in the end is merely annoying and a distraction from the very thin story of a father trying to track down and save his drug addicted son.

[J. Joseph · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thank you to W. W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for an uncorrected galley proof of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts and opinions. My Darling Boy releases on January 14, 2025.

Encapsulating a strained relationship between father and son, My Darling Boy follows a myriad of characters who are connected to the father and son duo Olney and Cully. Olney has been searching for his son in Southern Florida for a while now, trying to convince him to return home and rehab from his addictions. Cully, though, wants to make his own way through life and believes his father is misremembering how "good" their relationship was when he was growing up. They two continually cross paths like ships in the night, almost connecting or briefly encountering each other. As the story builds, Olney expands his network of friends helping his search for his son and Cully wrestles with his desire to get better while warring with his own stubbornness, a stubbornness that is bolstered by his addiction.

I really wanted to like this book, as it focuses on the less-often seen relationship between a father and his son (usually it's mother and son, mother and daughter, or father and daughter). This is an important relationship to highlight, especially in our current society where male emotions are often still considered peripheral. However, I really struggled to get through the story because it felt like I was just reading trauma-porn. The book is described as tragicomic, but I don't remember anything I'd consider that meets this descriptor... It felt like none of the characters, not even the one-off background characters, were allowed to have anything good happen in their lives. I think the only thing I genuinely remember being neutral/positive is that Neutron surprised everyone by giving birth to healthy kittens in the motel. From a more literary perspective, rather than a content perspective, I was left feeling by the end of the book as though none of the characters made any personal or character growth. Olney ended still obsessing over a past that likely didn't exist, and Cully ended still running from his loved ones.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just finished My Darling Boy. It’s exquisitely written and heartbreaking about a father trying desperately to save his drug addicted son. What a story of enduring love and hope. Not a fun read but I couldn’t put it down. Be forewarned. Read it when you can handle the despair and anguish.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A father goes on a quest to find and rescue his once-promising, drug-addicted, 20-something son. Of course, the problem is that he has to want to be saved, and this is a young man who is truly committed to his addiction. I went into this without having read much about it other than critical praise, and that brief synopsis had me expecting something leaning towards bleak. Instead, this was something more gentle beneath the parental heartbreak and incomprehension: wry and funny, peopled with a quirky cast of characters.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read my mini-review HERE.

[Peter Mladinic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy Swing



This novel deserves an award because it is so—well—written. Readers are with many memorable characters close up, but one they see only from a distance, and briefly is Wyatt Tyler, rookie shortstop of the Brown Bats. Like the novel’s third person omniscient narrator, Olney Kartheizer, who continuously makes readers want to know what will happen next, Wyatt Tyler, with talent and skill, keeps baseball fans on edge with anticipation. On Opening Day Tyler’s line drive hit wins the game. Much later in the Tyler suffers an injury at the plate that will likely end his career; Olney too is injured, from a gunshot wound, but recovers. For Olney “nothing keeps its secrets like the future.” Before being injured on the field, Wyatt, with his keen eye, had a knack for seeing what was coming, for seeing the future; that was part of his talent. Author John Dufresne’s talents are amply displayed as his lets readers know, makes them care, and holds them at bay. Olney and his son Cully are at the heart of the novel’s conflict, in which imagination is a bridge between past and present. There at Godolphin Field, in Anastasia, Florida, Merielle, originally from Requiem, Massachusetts, may have been thinking of Boston Red Sox great, Ted Williams, who, like Wyatt, had a keen eye for seeing what was coming. So does John Dufresne as he takes readers through his fictional world.

[Lolly K Dandeneau · Rating 3 out of 5]

via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔𝒏’𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕?

My Darling Boy is an interesting read, one that is full of lively people, often misfits, trying to get through life while attempting to hold themselves and others together. It is about keeping hope alive while everything is unraveling, and all signs point to failure. Florida is a unique state, and yes sometimes strange, I admit this as a Florida native living here currently, but this could take place anywhere. When Olney’s drug addicted son Culley disappears in the underbelly of South Florida, he sets out to find him. A retired staff writer and copy editor, now a part time worker at a miniature golf place (not for money, but a cure for loneliness), divorced from Cully’s mother, he spends his time with fond memories of their once happy little family. The problem is the truths he holds dear of reading bedtime stories and family coziness may not be the way Cully remembers things. In truth, when Cully first started dabbling, it was easier to think it was a phase, typical teenager behavior even his friends comforted him with this belief even if his ex-wife didn’t buy it at the time. There was a horrific tragedy, a second chance, but nothing took, in fact his son’s misery and depression, the pain of living in his own head is the very thing that pushes him to use. Pain clinics for his fix, a total obliteration of the sweet, funny boy Cully once was.

Rehab hasn’t worked, family therapy, enabling with financial support, programs, nothing has pulled Cully from the abyss of addiction. Not their love and attention nor threats. Olney struggles with what many mothers and fathers do, are they loving a phantom, a memory, who their child was before the addiction changed them? Is the core still there? How many times can you break your heart trying to save someone who is hellbent on self-destruction? Drug addicted children (even adult children) is a too common tale, but Dufresne gives the reader a close up look as Olney is on his son’s heels, always about to reach him physically and emotionally. Along the way he interacts with an array of unique people who help him, some with their own sad stories. It can be a depressing read at times but with an injection of humor. Even when Olney and his girlfriend Mireille play private eyes together trying to find Culley, we know their future together is short. It isn’t a happy ending novel, but a too real one for many. The ending is realistic, sadly many families are going through a similar struggle. I am a fan of John Dufresne, this isn’t my favorite novel by him but still worth the read.

Publication Date: January 14, 2024

W. W. Norton & Company

[Jacob Hoover · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and HighBridge Audio for this ARC!

This is a beautiful story about a father-son relationship—that's what you get from the first 50 pages—but it becomes so much more. It transforms into this funny, unflinching story that will keep the reader interested and is very much needed because of the heavy topics discussed throughout the book (the opioid crisis, mostly). Olney's son, Cully, had a spectacular relationship with his father, although as he starts thinking for himself, he spirals into a horrible drug addiction and runs off to Flordia. Olney chases after him, reflecting on his connection with Cully in his younger years and whether he messed up along the way as a father. I loved how their relationship was presented, even though I believe more pages should have explored their connection to make it more realistic. But it still felt so real and raw. As a reader, I can feel Dufresne pouring all his grief into these characters.
The pacing was a bit all over the place. Some scenes felt stretched out while others felt they should have been explored more. Too much was happening in these few pages and gave me literary whiplash.
But all that aside, its a fabulous read if you're looking for a sad story that has lighthearted scenes and won't leave you emotionally devastated.
i think this should go on your 2025 tbr.

[BooksRgood · Rating 5 out of 5]

so sad, so real, so many names, so funny, so sad. Hit hard for me - thinking of friends who've gone thru something like what our protagonist is going thru here. Sigh...
A few passages:

Little by little, time had erased the different periods of his life, none of which had a connection with a subsequent one, and as such that life had been only a series of interruptions, avalanches, or even amnesias.

"Self pity is a waste of time. As the Buddhist say, pain is inevitable; suffering is optional."

"There’s a lot of resentment between you, she says. Resentment is like sticking your hand in a flame and waiting for the other person to burn."

"She says not knowing where your car keys is normal, not knowing what your car keys are is Alzheimer’s."

"The price of love is grief, and grief becomes remembrance, and remembrance restores the love. You don’t lose what you keep in your heart."

"When he was a kid, his friends called him Maytag because he was so easily agitated."

What’s left of Bill Tasher and James Patrick Horan are eating oysters and smoked mullet at Edith's Raw Bar on the beach and shooting the breeze with Fleet Lentz, their shucker. Fleet shows the men a dry, withered, cloudy oyster that he just opened. He says, If I gave you this one, you'd be dead tomorrow. What's left of Bill Tasher says, Promises, promises.

[Luis Cuesta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway. John Dufresne’s novel, "My Darling Boy" tells the story of Olney Kartheizer, a retired newspaperman on a treacherous (and all-to-familiar) journey to save his son, Cully, from the alcohol and rampant illegal and legal drugs he uses to numb the pain. Yet Dufresne, rather than steering the plot toward the melodramatic or even dramatic, turns his novel into an almost satirical play.
The expedition to save Cully takes Olney into dangerous territory. At one point he finds his son bleeding in an alley after a life-threatening beating by drug dealers. At another, he’s shot by a tightly wound paranoiac at Sister Robbie’s boardinghouse when he’s mistaken for an intruder. Underlying it all is the intractability of Cully’s sorry state because the novel is also about depression, and the toll it takes on the depressed. Cully is sad. He’s unhappy. He’s an addict, and he’s a victim of the violence so prevalent when you’re living out on the streets. He also serves as a reminder to us that these things exist, and not just in Florida but as an epidemic everywhere in our country.

[Neil Crabtree · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received from WW Norton an Advanced Reading Copy of this incredible book. We read about opioid addiction every day. In this novel, John Dufresne takes it down to the personal level. Olney is a modern-day father whose son Cully becomes addicted after an injury. Cully likes being addicted, something that's hard for his family, indeed, for any straight people to understand. The numbness of the drugs can actually seem an improvement to the numbness and despair of living in these troubled times. Read Burrough's book JUNKY to see this from another angle. Olney struggles to save his son, now grown and on his own going from one fix to another. Olney's quest is America's quest, to rescue our children from the turning away of love and understanding. In the wonderful Dufresne fashion, we encounter normal environments full of crazy people, often hilarious, sad, and endearing. Treat yourself to a novel you'll always remember. Available in January 2025. Pre-order now.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has so many things that I love: Shaggy plot; lots of characters; small towns; down-on-their luck weirdos; tragi-comedic elements; and more. So why didn't I give it 5 stars. Because it had TOO much of all those things. I couldn't corral what I was reading. It was one character after another. And they were all introduced by their name but not how they're related to the story. So many times I was asking myself, wait, was I supposed to know this guy? Did I already forget or is this just a new character? I complain about this but also respect it. I think this shaggy character study is actually the point. Maybe John Dufresne is saying this is what living is. It's people going in and out of your life. Some are significant, some you forget, some never come into your life but play a role through a weird set of coincidences. I appreciate and respect John Dufresne very talented writing.

[Susan Emmet · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I found this novel hard to follow, it won't dissuade me from reading more by Dufresne.
There's humor slathered in tragedy - or at least in utter negativity. A host of characters, often well-drawn, populate the book, but often clog it.
And it's certainly a book about how children "develop" or fall into addiction despite a supposedly happy childhood and loving parents.
I think I'm most impressed by how complicated recovery is. Multiple choices for help exist. I think of my stepson, an alcoholic, whose life has been punctuated by AA , rehab, and continual "falling away" for twenty-five years. Ultimately, parents or loved ones can't save anyone. There has to be acceptance and clear desire to live soberly, day by day.
This is a novel worth reading, no doubt.

[Liv Karczewski · Rating 1 out of 5]

It takes a lot for me to finish a book, immediately reach for my computer, open up Goodreads and begin to write a review, scorching. This only happens with books that are a one star, in my eyes. Congratulations.

I assume I'm previously stained by the earth-shattering tale of "Beautiful Boy", which was a true story, one sowed rather enchantingly. Comparatively, this novel fell short, in my opinion. Not all stories of addiction are the same -- I will acknowledge I enjoyed the focused perspective of the father.

I could go on for a while about how the development fell short, but Steve Donoghue wrote better than I ever could, "My Darling Boy might be the book’s title, but “Where’s Cully?” is a line of dialogue that’s repeated roughly 400 times in 288 pages."

[Eryne · Rating 2 out of 5]

An unusual book that I wanted to like. But I found the story to be dragging, and overpopulated with offbeat characters to the point of being confusing. There was a lot of mundane descriptions, which sometimes can bring you into the nuances of a character, but in this case were just terribly dull. The father, searching for his adult son who is a drug addict, is obsessed with what is clearly an idealized remembrance of his past relationship. And his son is your average addict who is thinking of no one but his drug. I didn’t see anyone grow or change in this book. I pushed through because I thought the narrative would have some kind of conclusion, but you end the book precisely where you started it.

[Carol Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite hidden bookish gems is Less by Andrews Sean Greer. It’s a hidden gem because, even though it won the Pulitzer, I never see it anywhere on bookstagram. My Darling Boy reminds me of Less, if Less was stripped of all its hope and left with only humor and stark, bitter reality. John Dufresne’s words are lyrical and beautiful, but you’re constantly aware that that beauty will come crashing down around you. He uses this method to highlight the life of a man called Olney, whose son is addicted to opioids, and Olney’s constant awareness of what opioids have taken from him. It’s a literary piece full of heart and views of the underbelly of Florida.

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book is fiction the themes of addiction and the impact on the addict and their family is the reality for so many across the US. It’s a story about hope, faith, love and heartbreak, so much heartbreak.

It’s a powerful story but parts are exhausting which makes you feel what the main character is experiencing. There are a lot of characters and I struggled to remember who each person.

This is my first book by John Dufresne. Charles Armstrong did an excellent job with the narration.

Thank you to NetGalley & HighBridge Audio for letting me read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Tom Gaillard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this novel, though the subject matter was pretty tough...a father's (and mother's) quest to help their son recover from addiction.

I thought it well written and while it was sentimental (regarding the familial bonds) it was decidedly not sentimental in describing the issues and complications and tragedy of addiction in the family. It was also clearly written by a Florida native, one who takes a sometimes jaded view of the state and its inhabitants. That said, the secondary characters are well wrought and believable even though you wouldn't necessarily want to be best friends with them!

A good solid read.

[Marjorie Klein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pathos and comedy are woven throughout this compelling story of a father’s search for his addicted son, its many layers enriched by Dufresne’s sympathy for his characters, both major and minor. As a fan of his previous books, I dove into this one with expectations that were more than fulfilled. There is a richness to his writing that defies definition, and I found myself re-reading certain passages to savor his descriptions. There are no easy answers to the questions that arise here, but there is an understanding of the characters’ humanity when faced with these problems. Laced with humor and anchored by compassion, this is a must-read.

[Thecritic · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and Blackstone Audio for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is biography of a fictional father, with an addict son.

It is not an easy read, it is more of a reporting than story. The narrative is not focused on anything, there are a collection of scenes, characters, dialogs and explanations that do not progress the story.

The son turns to drugs and leaves because his best friend left when he was a child, and his father lied to him about it.

And the father tries to find him and fails but doesn’t give up.

It is not my cup of tea, but it has its moments.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the characters were very well drawn, there were a million of them and after a while it seemed like the author was addicted to making up new characters just so he could dazzle us with his skill at quickly fleshing them out. It got very tedious. The main character was also a retired journalist who was also coming up with his own characters for future stories so we had a whole other set of people that he introduced to us never to be seen again. It got to the point where I couldn’t wait for the book to end. Never a good sign.

[Celine Thormann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Admittedly I did read this book while I had a high fever, but this book felt like a fever dream. The emotional impact of this book didn’t really hit for me, and I kept losing track of the characters and POVs. The sense of place was very strong, but my overall impression was that these places in Florida are not places I would ever want to spend any time. There were also several typos or misprints that might have been deliberate (there were so many that it’s hard to imagine them being accidental) but I found them distracting.

[Bob K · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's the story about a father dealing with an adult son in the throes of opioid addiction. The story could have been delivered with a fairly straightforward narrative but the author skillfully includes colorful characters throughout who don't necessarily drive the plot but provide a detailed depiction of everyday life in Florida. At it's heart though, it's about a cycle of addiction that seems almost impossible with a parent's love that's even stronger, regardless of the result of their efforts.

[Elizabeth Lehnertz · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book is full of a menagerie of characters that I'm assuming were meant to be endearing and quirky, but I found it completely overwrought and distracting. And - there was absolutely no development of any of the characters to make it worth the effort of tracking them all. A lot died, a few had a Hallmark-twist ending and the rest stayed the exact same. Even the two characters we were most invested in - Olney, the father searching for his son Cully who was wrestling with addiction - don't really develop and, in my opinion, feel like we leave them almost exactly where we met them.

[Robert M A'Hearn · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

This type of post modern and satirical writing style does not always work for me, but maybe Florida is so inherently fantastic that it just makes sense (there are several factual Florida details in this book that I mistook as satire). I enjoyed the large quantity of characters as well as the care put into developing a whole lot of them. As someone who has people in their life dealing/dealt with addiction, there are so many realistic and humanistic details about loving, hating, and trying to make sense of addicts that resounded with me

[Lina Hershberger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for a better story. It was a story about a drug-dependent son, Cully, and the parents, Olney and Kat, who are trying to find him. There were a lot of characters and there were a lot of extraneous things happening. They do say that it takes a village, and there were quite a few in this village.
Maybe I just didn't like his writing style, but it did give a glimpse into how different the memories are of the drug- addicted person and the person looking for them.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Almost 4 stars. It was the ending that did it. I desperately (as desperately as Olney, the father) wanted son Cully to be found. I wanted Cully to succeed at sobriety. I wanted a different ending. After pulling me page by page through drama after trauma, I needed all this work of reading to amount to a happy ending. The author is talented at consuming the reader with a never ending story, to be sure. But I suppose that defines addiction and the search for a non-medicated life: never ending.

[Priyanka Ganguly · Rating 5 out of 5]

A heartbreaking story of a father searching for his addict son. The narrative weaves through so many lives (sometimes too many) each bursting with dimensions and color. It’s exasperating to keep track at first. Then you stop trying. You let go and observe, the way you do in real life. That’s what Olney does: he lives to watch, to imagine, to paint endless inner pictures of friends and strangers. The word 'sonder' comes alive here. This one is going to follow me for a while.

[Cass · Rating 2 out of 5]

A story about a father's undying love as he travels to a small town in Florida in attempts to save his son. Some of the characters throughout the book I found unnecessary. I found my mind straying a lot and having to reread pages in order to try to find the point. In the end it's just a story about a dad looking for his son. Deep, heart breaking and reflective at times

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

If Dave Berry and Carl Hiaasen teamed up to write a quixotic and picaresque novel, maybe consulting with Elmore Leonard, there you have it. The eternally good hearted Olney Kartheiser searches and searches for his druggie son Cully, who is always "this close" to recovery. The search is sad and sweet and full of all kinds of characters.