Belinda’s Law is a delightful examination of the life situation of a cast of characters who are just as normal as the book’s readers. There are no superhero archetypes or supervillain demons lurking in the shadows to take control of the story and making the book about more than just the daily struggles we all go through in life. The basic, normal contemporary fiction that Jerry Bronk introduces to readers sheds new light on old themes: live, love, work, play, dream. There are few surprises in life and this book features a narrative recollection by the main character of a life lived and played out in reality, not fantasy.
For such a short book (even short by novel standards), there are many twists and turns that take place that come out of the woodwork the same way termites come out of hiding in a wall to find a classic piece of furniture. for devotion. As he devours the pages, these same twists and turns lend themselves nicely to a story that introduces a part of each of us to the reader.
This reviewer was taken to a part of the United States he had never been to to fall in love with people he had never met, dreaming about the story and what might happen next while taking a break from reading. This book really has no other setting than the lives of almost everyone who can read the book. And the names of the characters could easily be substituted with our own names, or with the names of people we know or have known throughout our lives. Staying grounded and remembering that this book is fiction and not a “true crime” novel about a man, his daughter, and the people around them is very difficult. Reality seems to mix with fantasy in a dreamscape that one would not remember when waking up, but would vividly remember trying to fall asleep.
Although the typesetting is a major issue for this book (it just looks so unprofessional) and the typeface itself is so small that even this reader with normal eyesight needed to squint to follow the smooth flow of writing. Although the author uses semicolons too much (and most of the time incorrectly), there are no editing issues that would prevent this book from selling commercially or being marketed to audiences who like a good late-century story. 20th century and early 21st century. about normal people doing normal things in a mess created by other normal people doing normal things.
I finished this book wondering what was next. Will there be a sequel? Will there be a book written by Belinda or another character that tells the story in a different way? Will I, the reader, write a sequel to the book only to finish the story in my own mind, a mind that no longer seems normal but a little insane?
