'Tell the Wolves I'm Home'

By Julia L.

Carol Rifka Brunt debut novel is Tell the Wolves I’m Home, a realistic fiction story revolving around the AIDS crisis of the 1980s. The narrator of Wolves is a fourteen-year-old girl named June Elbus. Most of her time and thoughts are spent with her Uncle Finn, who is a skilled painter. The story begins with June describing a Sunday afternoon that she and her sister Greta spent at Finn’s. This was a common occurrence for the girls; Finn knew he was dying, and so he wanted to paint a picture of his nieces.

Unable to be herself around anyone else, Finn’s death leaves June alone. However, June sees a strange man at Finn’s funeral. Days later, the man gives June a package. It is shortly revealed that this stranger is Toby, Finn’s boyfriend. At first June is jealous of this man, jealous that he knew a side of Finn that she never did. Nevertheless, June and Toby begin spending secret time together, and a friendship grows between them with unintended consequences.

Brunt’s descriptions are long and often flowery, riddled with words that simply make them drag on. I felt this way especially in the middle of the book. At other times the language adds a poetic touch to the story.

June is well-developed and interesting, but the other characters seem flat at times. The older sister Greta hardly changes and the parents seem to be in the story only to get in the way. The pacing of the story drags in the middle. While all of the scenes add to June’s character, many felt like they detracted from the story as a whole. I often wondered when the story would get a move on and tired of hearing June talk of her own greed.

Although Brunt is new to the world of novels, she has written short fiction and non-fiction in magazines. Despite the problems that Tell the Wolves I’m Home has, I enjoyed it. Brunt was able to make me feel for June even though I have little to nothing in common with her. I would recommend checking the book out of the library.

Tell the Wolves I’m Home, by Carol Rifka Brunt, The Dial Press, 2013, 355 pages.