WICHITA by Thad Ziolkowski - The homeland for Tornadoes

Wichita is a dark, quirky novel of family dysfunction.  I'm reminded of Tyler's DINNER at the HOMESICK RESTAURANT and Franzen's THE CORRECTIONS.  The distinction with Ziolowski's novel is the strong familial love between the two brothers, Lewis the recent Columbia grad and Seth, the drugged up dropped out problem child and their eccentric mother, Abby.  Lewis returns  home to Wichita after graduating without a job to live with Abby & Seth. Abby is divorced from their father, Virgil, a prof. @ Columbia and whose side of the family are all in the academia world.  Abby & Seth's world consist of a motley cast of shady characters bent on self-destruction.  Lewis is caught somewhere in the middle. He lived in NYC with Virgil to attend Horace Mann H.S. & Columbia college.  The matriach of Virgil's family believes that Seth should be disowned but encourages Lewis to prevail in his studies.  The other side, Abby and Lewis "were like parents together...with a bond formed around handling Seth, their strange child."  Things are doomed to get a lot stranger.  This is a quirky tale of what being a family entails: a lot of work and a lot of love.  "All the effort of keeping up the wall, the wall of family."  What a pity when all the love & effort are not enough to sustain a family.