Second Chance

Product Description

Kara makes a decision to end her days on Earth. Writing a note to her family and dog, she believes this is the finale. A quick trip to the bridge overlooking the riverbanks and her cares will be over. But life has other plans for Kara and so she must begin anew. Her ebullient best friend Amanda blithely courts dangers of her own. Her daughter Darla believes she is a prophetess who controls the fish in the aquarium. Son Bucky, tender and sarcastic, is reaching a brooding puberty, while husband Kyle begins to wonder how he ever could have wed so mercurial a woman. In some way, each depends on the strength of this central female figure. Second Chance is a comedy dark around the edges, about snatching triumph from the jaws of humiliation. Its close-knit, offbeat characters ring with the wit, poetry and wiles of everyday existence. They move from heartbreak to joy while barely noticing. Their collective journey to redemption begins with the impulsive jump of a desperate wife and mother and ends with an unexpected trip to the mountains, taking in along the way everything from arson and the Angel of Death to sailboats and Scrabble.

Review

A woman plunges off a bridge in a suicide attempt, and Johnny Payne plunges us into the repercussions of the act on her family and community. A psychologically acute, wise, lyrical novel that gives insight into character as only the best novels can. --Jose Skinner, author of Flight and Other Stories

In Johnny Payne s Second Chance, we meet a fully-realized American family coming to terms, not with its second chance, but with its last chance. That they do so with such humor and grace is a testament to Payne s storytelling, which is as rich with wry irony as it is with sobering truths. There are lyrical passages so bittersweet that they left a tang in my mouth. But there are also scenes that cut like a knife and if it s true that the closer to the bone, the sweeter the meat, then Johnny Payne is cutting very close to the bone indeed. --Michael Kelsay, author of Too Close to Call

From the first line we know we are in the South. Where else would we find a story about a woman who tries to kill herself by jumping into a river only to discover that suicide is yet another thing she cannot even get right? It is the South all right but this novel is nothing that we could or should call Southern . Johnny Payne has created a rare atmosphere combining the disenchantment of our postmodern lives with the pettiness of a small town as a measure of the world. It is our own private hell: the one made of worn-out relationships, unspoken words or words that cannot be taken back, a hell where there is music playing in the background, women are still sunbathing and dyeing their hair, and children grow up almost with malice. But even in hell there is room for humor and new beginnings. Second Chance is a novel deceitfully simple that demands a careful reader. Its prose, in which adjectives explode either as a gift or as a lash, is simply delightful. Betina Gonzalez, author of Arte Menor --Betina Gonzalez, author of Arte Menor

In Johnny Payne s Second Chance, we meet a fully-realized American family coming to terms, not with its second chance, but with its last chance. That they do so with such humor and grace is a testament to Payne s storytelling, which is as rich with wry irony as it is with sobering truths. There are lyrical passages so bittersweet that they left a tang in my mouth. But there are also scenes that cut like a knife and if it s true that the closer to the bone, the sweeter the meat, then Johnny Payne is cutting very close to the bone indeed. --Michael Kelsay, author of Too Close to Call

From the first line we know we are in the South. Where else would we find a story about a woman who tries to kill herself by jumping into a river only to discover that suicide is yet another thing she cannot even get right? It is the South all right but this novel is nothing that we could or sho