What We Lost

What We Lost is a wonderful fictional memoir about the author's father's early life and what he endured. Peck's prose is breathtakingly poignant and he delves into the human condition with a delicate but plain touch. The result is a work of fiction that has been woefully overlooked and underappreciated. I'm so glad to have found What We Lost.

Dale Peck has written as moving a tribute to his father as I can remember reading. Here he writes of his father's (Dale, Sr.) leaving an abusive mother and alcoholic father at the age of 13 to live on a dairy farm in upstate New York with his father's loving brother, his Uncle Wallace, and his soon-to-be wife Bessie. There he learns for the first time in his life what it's like to be surrounded by adult love. Peck's prose is descriptive and full of similes and metaphors, my one concern with this book. There is never any indication that Peck, Sr. was particularly gifted in language. While many of the beautiful passages obviously come from the narrator, occasionally there are words coming from Peck, Sr. that belong to Peck, Junior. For example: "As he walks, the ladies (cows) behind him low in anticipation of his arrival. Their calls make him think that he is a finger running a glissando the length of a giant keyboard. . ." I do not believe these words would have come from someone who grew up to learn the business of trenchless sewer line replacement. This is certainly a minor blemish though of a really fine book. Dale Peck, Junior introduces himself to the reader in the last few pages of the narrative when he and his father return to upstate New York in 2001-- Peck, Senior now lives in Kansas and Junior is a writer in New York City-- to attend a family reunion in what is a very warm finale to this story.

Dales Peck's writing is so beautiful and lyrical that at times you simply stop reading and stare at a phrase or sentence in amazement. Like this little gem at the beginning:"It is too cold and the factory is six blocks away and the boy can smell little more than a ghost of sugar on the wet air, but in his mind the street is doughy as a county kitchen, and as he inhales he pretends he can sort the different odors of crumb and glazed and chocolate-covered donuts from an imaginary baker's hash of heat and wheat and yeast."This sentence brings to mind the "valley of ashes" passage in Fitzgerald's GATSBY and is reminiscent, as well, of the first stanza in Keat's EVE OF ST. AGNES. Peck may just be the most lyrical writer we have today.

I'm a huge fan of Dale Peck's work, especially LAW OF ENCLOSURES (which has one of the best endings I've ever read). This new book is a memoir--or at least a re-imagining of his father's life on Long Island and in upstate New York--and it's beautifully written. I never expected to say Willa Cather and Dale Peck in the same sentence--except, perhaps, in a sentence like "Willa Cather could beat up Dale Peck,"--but the comparison here seems appropriate. It would be a crime to break this beautiful book down into "literary elements," but Peck is the best maker of similes around. There are so many stunning sentences here; I copied whole paragraphs and passed them out to my high school students as examples for writing. The slim last act of the book expands the focus to include Dale Peck the writer and becomes a meditation on fate and fatherhood and reconcilliation. And maybe forgiveness. I'm surprised there hasn't been more buzz about this book. I'm hoping for a review in the NYT or somewhere that will make people notice it. If not, you have this first review to urge you to read it.

"A meditation on the permanence of glancing moments..." A perfect description for this remarkable piece of writing. This book reads like a novel but is actually a true story about the author's father and his experience on his uncle's dairy farm as a child. You'll learn more from this book than just how to milk a cow. This book, in so subtle a way that you might not even notice, teaches a powerful lesson about the irreversible consequences of every decision, both big and small, that we make in life. Every moment of our lives will be with us forever, both in our memory and in the affect that it has on our future. Each step we take not only leads us somewhere but also takes us away from somewhere else.Dale Peck is a writer of incredible grace. This book is divided into two parts, so extremely different from one another that you have to wonder for the first few pages of the second part whether you are even in the same story. But just as your confusion starts to turn to frustration, Peck ties his stories together in a beautiful and seamless way, building your anticipation and then slowly bringing you back down only to build it back up again even higher. This book is nothing short of masterful.