The Blackfish Inheritance

by Thomas Wolfson

Based on the life of author Thomas Wolfson, The Blackfish Inheritance is a sweeping bildungsroman about a man attempting to escape from the outsize influence of his father and come into his own.

Leon’s travails begin with a privileged upbringing in New York City's Upper East Side, marred by spectacular family feuds between his famously eccentric father, a renowned artist and writer, and his blue-blooded mother.

Alternately serious, hilarious, and poignant, Leon evokes the iconic Holden Caulfield and Jack Kerouac as he struggles with alienation and a lack of direction as a young student before heading to Los Angeles. There he works in the plumbing business, tries on the life of an insurance agent, and eventually becomes involved in a cult. Returning to the East Coast, Leon longs for a loving reconciliation with his difficult father. Even after his father’s gone, Leon finds himself wrestling with his ghost—with the help of a Wampanoag medicine man.

This lyrically written creative nonfiction novel encompasses a range of intriguing themes, including elitism, the tumultuous ‘60s, the insurance industry, shamanism, spirituality, Carl Jung, and psychology— offering a compelling journey through human interactions to which everyone can relate.

347 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 20, 2015

Reviews

[Rick Cochran · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Blackfish Inheritance by Thomas Wolfson is a beautifully written chronicle of growing up in the baby-boomer generation, dealing with a dysfunctional family and a domineering, narcissistic, famous father. This is a work of fiction, but clearly is autobiographical in most aspects. As someone who grew up on Cape Cod, I was particularly interested in the story line related to Wellfleet which is central to the character. The Manhattan-Wellfleet summer connection is common and rekindled memories of several summer friendships I developed over the years.
Wolfson is a talented writer and I hope he continues to craft more works in the future. Blackfish Inheritance is, at times, a painful tale of tortured relationships. Beneath the pain dwells a love of his father and mother that takes work on his part to maintain. The protagonist, Leon, experiences most of the trends of the decades represented; a rebellious alcohol, pot and sex filled teenage years of the sixties, years of rejection of education and intellectual values of his father while he works blue collar jobs in the seventies, a decade of the greed and self-absorption misleading customers while selling insurance, and finally a return to his Cape Cod summers roots, the location of his best memories. In Wellfleet he seeks spiritual relief and delves into Native America practices and devotion to nature.
Throughout his life there is the constant presence of his disapproving father. A narcissist, his father succeeds in always being the center of attention and making everything always about him. Leon struggles in vain to gain his father approval. Like Sisyphus rolling the rock up the hill, Leon finds the rock always rolls back to the bottom. His need for approval is perpetually doomed to failure. Despite it all Leon finds a measure of peace and carves out his own version of a successful life.
For people of a certain age this novel will stir memories, some fond and some not, but overall ones the are important and worthwhile.

[Cindy]

Pretty wild book. Was interested as we stayed at the home of this author as a cape cod rental. Seems quite autobiographical.