In 2009, Juliet Patterson faced the dual challenges of recovering from a serious car accident and grappling with her father's suicide, a tragic event that echoed a disturbing family pattern—her father’s father and her mother’s father had also taken their own lives. Amid her grief and physical pain, Patterson was consumed by a singular question: Why? This inquiry into the loss of so many men in her family unfolds in three graceful movements. During the winter following her father's death, she searches for meaning in his belongings and in signs that might offer solace. As spring arrives, she and her mother travel to Pittsburg, Kansas, for the burial, a town marked by both promise and violence, now riddled with abandoned claims and sinkholes. Here, Patterson gathers evidence and imagines the lives of her grandfathers—one a passionate pro-labor politician, the other a melancholic businessman—whom she never met. Ultimately, she confronts her father's legacy, reflecting on goodbyes, loss, and the quest to break the cycle of despair. This poignant elegy weaves together personal, familial, political, and environmental histories, revealing not answers but profound, heartbreaking truths.
