In Ken Jaworowski's engaging, character-driven novel What About the Bodies, three people stymied by unfulfilled lives strive to find meaning in economically depressed and "unfeeling" Locksburg, Pa.
Single mother Carla Louden, who has always worked as a waitress, may finally realize her dream of owning a restaurant as she converts an old barn with the help of one employee she's hired and her college-age son, Billy, on whom she dotes. All her life, Liz Moyer has followed her dream of being a singer-songwriter, but she's broke. Liz might find success if she can get her 15-year-old breakdown-prone Chevy to Nashville, where a powerful producer wants to hear her music. Meanwhile, 20-year-old Reed Grove, who is autistic, wants to slip a doll he made in the third grade into his mother's casket, which is locked in a mausoleum, before his brother, Greg, sends him to a care facility in Pittsburgh. Along their individual odysseys, each will meet with violence and obstacles that may be insurmountable. Billy, who earned a full scholarship to MIT, has a secret that may ruin his and Carla's lives. Liz owes a vicious ex-con money. Reed faces rumors that he caused his mother's death.
Jaworowski alternates among his character's perspectives, setting up What About the Bodies as a series of vignettes that have the microcosmic depths of short stories. Each character is heartbreakingly close to ruin as brutality seeps into their lives. The trio's goals seem small but are individually significant. Jaworowski delivers a scintillating tale about three people attempting to rise above their limitations, adding an extra punch when they finally meet. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer