The Boy From The North Country penned by Bob Dylan’s doppelganger, author Sam Sussman is a deeply moving songbook to love. The narrative evokes myriad emotions---compassion, empathy, bliss, sorrow, hope --- exquisitely expressed in Sussman’s debut novel. If you’ve ever experienced grief or embraced joy you will relate to the incontrovertible devotion between a mother and her son. Presented as “true fiction” (autofiction) the book is based, in part, on the author’s personal life.
Twenty-six year old Evan Klausner never met his biological father. Though friends and total strangers told him he was the “spitting image” of legendary folk singer, Bob Dylan. Evan’s mother, June, shied away from talking about her checkered past. Growing up on a farm in rural upstate, Goshen, New York. Evan knew his mother kept secrets. She rarely spoke about her alcoholic husband nor the violence she endured within her two marriages. But it was no secret that June cherished Evan, her “sunshine boy.”
A holistic practitioner, June tenderly raised Evan with loving-kindness. She painstakingly imbued him with an unwavering zeal for nature, books, poetry, music-- and a “crunchy” diet. June was a health nut, habitually eating veggies, practicing yoga and meditation. Nonetheless, Evan was the mecca of June’s life. Mom and son read Harry Potter together shared long philosophical talks as she nurtured her darling Evan into manhood.
In his teens, Evan listened to Bob Dylan’s music. Inspired by Dylan’s poetic lyrics Evan hoped to become a writer. He studied philosophy in London, received his PhD in literature and wrestled with writing his “900-page” novel. Though frequently in touch with his mother while studying overseas for nearly eight years, Evan received a shocking call from her asking his help to navigate her imminent surgery and chemotherapy treatment for ovarian cancer. Gut-punched at her late disclosure of the dreaded disease, Evan rushed home leaving behind everything. He became his mother’s sole caregiver.
During that painful period, battling the ravages of cancer, June shared snippets of her concealed past with flashbacks how she unwittingly met Bob Dylan when she was an art student in Manhattan and once before Evan was born. That last time June was married as was Dylan to his wife, Sarah.
Evan felt his mother closeted far more than she expressed, and piqued by her cryptic, oft-repeated mantra, “nothing is holier than love, “ he never pressed her for further truth about his father. When her disease quickly began to metastasize, with its associated excruciating pain, an urgency that surpassed the magnitude of his paternal quest, dominated Evan’s thoughts. The center of Evan’s attention focused on a problem impossible to resolve --- his mother’s plea to help end her life.
An ineffable read, a mystery yet to be solved, the iconic Bob Dylan wrote a song titled Girl from The North Country. Was author Sussman’s mother the muse for Dylan’s song? Is Bob Dylan the author’s undeclared father?