Eyrie: A Novel

Tom Keely is pretty certain his life can’t get much worse. In a short period of time, he lost his wife, his job, and his home. Now he lives alone in his 10th-floor apartment, drinking and taking medication. From his eyrie, he observes life going on around him but refuses all but the most superficial interactions. Even his mother has never seen his apartment. Then he runs into Gemma and learns that she, his childhood neighbor, lives three doors down with her grandson. Drawn to the child, Keely gets tangled up in their messy lives with disastrous results.

It’s hard to understand Keely’s motivation for many of the choices he makes. Allusions to his job loss occur throughout the book, but the actual details of the job and the fiery tirade that lost it are absent. Presumably, this undescribed event, his declining health, his lack of a child, and a desire to be like his father cause him to exhibit really poor judgment. Following his decline is like watching a trainwreck, painful and inevitable. His connection to the child, his bizarre dreams, and the cause of his frequent black outs are never explained, leaving the reader with a collection of questions and a feeling of dissatisfaction.