Roastbeef's Promise

Roastbeef's Promise
David Jerome
Smack Books
ISBN: 9780981545912
Fiction, Contemporary
Reviewed by John R. Clark

Hope and Crosby join Ken Kesey on the Dayglow bus would be a good one line description of David Jerome's first book. When Jim "Roastbeef" Hume's father dies, Roastbeef is faced with having to fulfill the promise his dad made him accept; sprinkling his ashes in the 48 contiguous states. Since his immediate prospects are fairly dim and he's suffering a strong sense of loss, he decides what the heck, I'll give it my best shot.

Starting out from his home town in Maryland in the Hyundai his dad bought at an auction of used embassy cars, Roastbeef heads north to begin fulfilling his quest. How he accomplishes it and the string of extremely interesting and well fleshed out characters he meets along the way make for not only an interesting read, but a series of vignettes into other people's lives and how random encounters can make life a very interesting experience.

I really enjoyed reading this book. David Jerome has combined his sense of humor, honed during his stint as a comedy writer, with an acute perception of the common humanity which resides in most of us. Roastbeef's odyssey could easily have become a mad dash or slipped into boring self-pity. Instead, it reads more like the real life diary of someone on a mission which, at first glance, strikes you as slightly bizarre and possibly un-doable, but becomes a reality because other people 'get it' and help out in their own unique ways.

I will be happy to add it to the Hartland Public Library as well as recommend it to numerous patrons.