“Despite the superficial monotony of their lives, things were changing so quickly.” Who among us—especially those with children or aging parents—can’t relate to that statement?
Rebecca Kauffman’s I’ll Come to You follows an average family through one year (1995) and all that those 12 months bring. Corinne is pregnant with her first child, and she and her husband, Paul, are waiting expectantly for the new baby girl. Paul’s divorced mother, Ellen, is trying to find love and companionship again, and Corinne’s mother, Janet, is struggling to be honest about the cognitive decline of her husband, Bruce. Corinne’s car salesman brother, Rob, grapples with his own newly single state as he counts the days until it’s his turn for time with his twin sons. Each day presents occasions for joy or sorrow as these men and women wrestle with how life has gone and the challenge of attempting to connect with one another.
Kauffman thoughtfully portrays family relationships in all their tension and secrets as well as all their intimacy and wonder, in an unhurried narrative similar to the introspective style of authors like Ethan Joella or Ann Napolitano. Occasionally, her characters’ interactions are rendered more stiffly than authentically. And yet, I’ll Come to You surprises with moments of poetic poignancy, like when Bruce drafts a letter to his unborn granddaughter, and captures the palpable worry that any couple experiences about their children and the future. As Paul muses during his wife’s pregnancy, “For some people happiness seemed to arrive magically and effortlessly, like a little creature that flew to perch on its host’s shoulder and devoted its entire life to singing into their ear. In other cases, a person had to work like a craftsman to build it painstakingly, tiny piece by tiny piece, and then to protect it from predators of every size and form.”
As the seasons change, defining moments from each character’s past take on new significance. The many facets of family vacations, Christmases, late nights in a hospital and any time of day with a newborn are all tangibly displayed in Kauffman’s precise and descriptive prose.
