“It is unusual to read a second book in a trilogy that is essentially a prequel to the first, but that is the case with Edward Mooney, Jr.'s "The Journey of the Stone Man." True, the framing device for this story continues from where "The Pearls of the Stone Man" left off, but the heart of the story is set a quarter of a century before we met Joseph and Anne Marino at the end of their lives together on Pine Mountain. What happens here helps us to better understand the events of the first novel and why Joseph tried so hard with young Tim and Shannon.
"The Journey of the Stone Man" begins with Tim and Shannon visiting Pine Mountain with their own children, named Joey and Annie of course. Tim helps Paul Marino to clean out his father's garage and together they face the difficult task of sorting through everything that was collected through a lifetime. To them a lot of the stuff looks like junk, but obviously they had memories for the sentimental Joseph, and eventually they come to an item that brings back a rush of memories for Paul. It is a dual-barreled carburetor for a '68 Chevy. For more than twenty-five years Joseph Marino had kept it and now Paul is confronted with the reason that he left home and the explanation for why he and his father fought for years.
The journey of the title comes in two parts. Part One, "Midday in America," begins with what is clearly a familiar scene in the Marino household in California, with Annie trying to intervene in yet another fight between her husband and her fifteen-year old son. Then there is a telephone call from his mother in Maine with the new that Joseph's father has passed away. This means flying home for the funeral, where Joseph will have to deal with coming to terms for his feelings for his father. Thinking about the troubled relationship he had with father also makes Joseph more cognizant of how history is repeating itself in his relationship with his own son, especially since they are both named Paul.
All of Joseph's troubles with his father and son become symbolized by a 1948 Chevy Woody and Part Two, "The Journey," is the story of Joseph and Paul traveling together across the country in that car back to California. Even if you have not read the first novel you know from the prologue that this journey will not end well. But throughout this car trip Mooney continues to have Joseph trying to come to terms with the death of his father. While back in Maine for the funeral Joseph repeatedly found himself expressing things he never got to say to his father and it turns out that there are things that old Paul Marino never got to say as well that need to be said. Meanwhile, the strained relationship between Joseph and young Paul continues towards the breaking point.
On the one hand ever since I read "The Pearls of the Stone Man" I have been looking forward to the next book in the trilogy. But I found myself only willing to read a chapter or two at night for totally different reasons in the two main parts of the novel. The first part was difficult for me to read because I have never been to a funeral. Consequently the general idea that I will probably be going to one before the end of this decade and the growing possibility that it could be under similar circumstances distracted me a bit. Mooney details the emotional pain and loss that is disorienting Joseph with such exquisite detail, and is building upon the affection we developed for this painfully flawed man in the first volume, that reading the book in small doses becomes something of a necessity.
With the second part of the novel I found myself reading a chapter or two before going to bed, reaching the point where Joseph and Paul have settled into a motel for the night and stopping there, even if it was only two paragraphs into a chapter. This seemed appropriate because I am at the age where having Paul act like a typical teenager butting heads with his father on just about everything was as irritating to me as it was to Joseph. I know that I had my moments of irritating my father, but I was never in Paul's league even though the boy is not going out of his way to cause trouble.
I do not want to leave you with the impression that "The Journey of the Stone Man" is a painful book to read because although this is a painful story it is really about transcendence. There actually is something of a big bang in Mooney's novel, but it really is more about listening to the whimpers that make up a person's life and define their relationships with each other. The larger perspective is then even when son who has become a father remembers the past, they may still be condemned to repeat it.”
Champion Press - ISBN 1891400738