A whole wonderful saga of two families in the post Second World War American MidWest. Cal and Becky, Margaret and Felix, and their sons Skip and Buckeye, are all portrayed sympathetically and carefully as we are shown their beginnings and the interplay between their characters as they grow older and sometimes wiser. There are lots of issues to be unpicked, including abandoned children, covert homosexuality, promiscuity. alcoholism, the Vietnam war, fidelity and paternity, all wrapped up into one big gift of a story that never flags and has all the feels, from heartbreaking to heartwarming and so much more.

Families and connections

I loved this book.

Great characters, Cal, Becky, Margaret and Felix. Heart warming and heart breaking. Many decades covered, you will race through them to find out what happens next.

Love and loss

I don’t think I’ve ever been so invested in characters of a books lives.

What a journey. So much heartache.

I found this book quite educational also. I’ve learned quite a lot about the history of the wars from the past.

Great read.

Buckeye is quite the saga. Set in the American Midwest, the narrative follows both the fortunes of Cal Jenkins, his wife Becky, son Skip and Margaret Salt, husband Felix and son Tom through their lives from the 1930s to the 1980s.

Cal and Margaret both had difficult early lives - Cal through disability and Margaret because she was abandoned as a baby. We follow them as they overcome the obstacles life throws at them including relationship and parenting problems, along with the bigger picture of World War II and Vietnam.

There is a lot packed into this book and, despite some surprising choices made by both Margaret and Cal, I liked them both very much as characters. Felix and Becky, who could be considered secondary characters, both have fascinating lives and likeable characters.

In fact I don't think there was any part of the book that I didn't enjoy. Social and family histories are mixed brilliantly. Nothing feels forced or too melodramatic even though the war sections are extremely harrowing.

I admit to having a little sob on several occasions throughout the book but I'm quite an emotional person. Patrick Ryan certainly makes you care about each character, even Cal's irascible father, Everett.

A great read. Definitely recommended especially if you enjoy a story you can sink your teeth into.

The book does deal with some hard subjects such as homosexuality, life after death, violent death and loss. All are sensitively dealt with.

Thankyou very much to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the advance review copy.

Buckeye is a superbly written novel of love, loss and the acceptance of individuality, entangling the lives of two families. The characters are roundly drawn and, caught up in circumstances beyond their control, evoke varying degrees of pathos for their individual situations. Spanning most of the 20th century, the novel illustrates the social expectations and limitations of the time and not surprisingly most of the characters see a need to rebel against these gendered norms. An amazing read!

Buckeye
Patrick Ryan

Having seen some of my favourite writers rave about this book, I was very excited to receive an arc copy from @netgalley. Reading the blurb made me want to get stuck in straight away.
I was not disappointed. A small town America family drama spanning the years of the 1940s to the 1970s, Buckeye is a truly engaging read with a multi-layered story that is told with compassion and warmth. Highly recommend! (Will also be checking out the back catalogue of this new-to-me author!)

What struck me most was the compassion with which Ryan writes. Themes of love, loss, sexuality, infidelity, and forgiveness are handled with such perceptive sensitivity, often balanced with moments of gentle humour that keep the story warm and human. I love novels which span decades, and I thought it was very clever how America's three major wars (WW1, WW2, Vietnam) of the 20th century provide a bit of a backdrop to how people's lives were effected by them.

At a time and in a world where it feels as though those stories which burn hottest shine the brightest, what a delight to discover a novel that takes joy in the smaller moments, the piecemeal fabric that makes up a life, a community.

Ryan’s writing has a calm assurance to it, delivering decades of family drama in a way that never slips into hyperbole or histrionics. That is not to say that the lives of the Jenkins and the Salts are dull or dreary (all of human life and its highs and lows are in these pages). But what really hits hardest is the innate reality of it all - substance over spectacle.

If I had to gripe, the final quarter, following Buckeye’s adult years, is perhaps a little rushed in comparison to the saga of his parents and the post-war era of Bonhomie. But overall, this is a stunning contemporary American novel sure to become a modern classic.

A stunning achievement, Buckeye is easily one of the most emotional and touching books I have read this year. As I wipe away my tears, I am left with a feeling of awe for the time scale and depth conveyed within this tumultuous multi-generational novel.

Spanning from World War II to the Vietnam War, small town America is the backdrop for this generous and realistic view of humanity within the scope of four main characters - Cal, Becky, Felix and Margaret. Their lives gently unfold, develop and intertwine through some of the most difficult and trying times of the modern age. They each live, love, make mistakes and try to do the best they can with the circumstances and time allotted to them. Written as a warm embrace, it is easy to love each of them for their faults and strengths. Cal was born with leg length discrepancy so is not accepted into the Army as he tries to enlist. This makes him one of a handful of young men left in Bonhomie, Ohio during the course of WWII. Becky is a girl he went to school with. She is kind and possesses a unique ability that sets her apart from her peers. Felix is the gorgeous, all American boy who goes off to war and finds himself irrevocably changed by the experience. Margaret was raised in an orphanage and sows her wild oats in Columbus, the big city, as she stretches her wings to find her way in life. As I said, each character is utterly dear to the reader and as they grown, make adult choices and missteps, we are with them hoping for the best.

As tender as the story is, it is also a wry ode to the beauty and humour of small town life and the array of characters who people it. There are plenty of laughs as we see the town and its community change over the years with a wide supporting cast adding a great deal of colour to this rich tapestry. These feel like people the reader easily recognises as neighbours and friends we ourselves know so well.

Buckeye is a rare jewel that delivers an emotional punch and appreciation for the unique beauty each life is granted. I feel honoured to have spent my time with these people at this unparalleled time in American history.

'Buckeye' is a moving novel about small-town American life which follows two couples and their families through the turbulent middle decades of the 20th Century.

Cal Jenkins, the son of a WW1 veteran, is spared the ordeal of fighting in WW2 due to one leg being shorter than the other. Instead, he marries Becky Hanover and starts working in her father's hardware store, while Becky develops a sideline as a spiritualist medium. On VE Day, he meets red-headed stranger Margaret Salt, whose husband Felix is serving in the US Marines. Cal and Margaret's will have ramifications for both couples and their children which will be felt over the coming decades.

The novel beautifully observed, and all four central characters are well-drawn in their complexities. Although it deals with painful subjects - not least the effects of three wars (WW1, WW2 and the Vietnam War) on the men who serve in them - it is a gentle and tender read, and Patrick Ryan shows great kindness towards all of his characters. It has been blurbed enthusiastically by Ann Patchett and Ann Napolitano, and reminded me of both writers' work, particularly Napolitano's stunning 'Hello Beautiful': this too hinges on a long-held secret and the consequences of its unveiling.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC of this novel to review.

Set in the fictional town of Bonhomie in Ohio from the 1940s to 1970s, Patrick Ryan’s sweeping saga tells the stories of two couples (Cal and Becky, Felix and Margaret) whose lives come to intertwine after one particular encounter. Fans of Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano will especially enjoy this read, I think.

Whilst the book initially gave me Forrest Gump feels in its characterisation and small-town American setting, this impression faltered as the novel progressed. It’s quite a long read at 464 pages and whilst some sections flew by for me, others slowed a little too much.

I loved the way Ryan initially set up the characters, especially Cal Jenkins and his father Everett. Each character has their own distinct set of challenges, background and quirks that mark them out and engage the reader. I did feel the male characters and their relationships with one another were fleshed out more fully than the women in this story, though. But perhaps that was intentional.

It is predominantly a book about men and their relationships with others: their struggle to communicate; the societal/sexual confines of the times; father-son dynamics and expectations versus reality.
The legacy of war is repeatedly touched upon and has a profound impact on the lives of all those in this story.

The writing style employed here ‘told’ rather than ‘showed’. This enabled Ryan to deliver an epic that encapsulated a lot from the era but didn’t move me personally to engage fully with the characters or ‘feel’ enough emotion for their plights.

Still, there is a lot of love for this novel and plenty to enjoy. I can see it being made into a film (much of it played out like a movie in my mind) and its characters will certainly stay with me. With thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the eArc for this review.

I was sent an advance proof copy of Buckeye by Patrick Ryan to read and review by NetGalley. This is a novel full of American history and family relationships which spans many decades. I did finish the book and can see why it has so many accolades but personally I found it, even though well written, rather flat regarding atmosphere and emotion, almost as though it was a book of facts rather than a novel. I also found it to be overly long. I read to the end as much to finish it rather than really wanting to know what happened. It’s a shame as I was really looking forward to reading it and maybe had I picked it up at another time I would have felt differently about it. I have still given a rating of 4 stars as I think that despite my own feelings it is certainly worth more than just 3 overall.

I was totally immersed in the lives of these characters, which reminded me of Ann Tyler’s America, spanning decades of pre and post war events and culture. Two marriages, both with their strong connections and also their difficulties, are brought together in a series of beautiful yet devastating connections. I loved the writing, it was full of life and love, sometimes humorous, and definitely took me to another place and time. The characters were very appealing, even the grumpy grandfather, who has his own story of unspoken horrors of a previous war, and writes protest letters to government. I loved this.

I found this a very strange book. The topic centres around the lives of two men, two women a d subsequently their children. Collected here is a little romance, we touch on racial segregation and abuse as we follow the progress of America through the second world war, subsequent wars and atrocities. Adultery and homosexuality. Secrets between adults and children. The damage to motherless children. The book covers lifetimes and sums up the strange paths we choose for ourselves and the consequence of choice.

All the characters in ‘Buckeye’, by Patrick Ryan, feel like they are different. Margaret was abandoned by her mother at an orphanage, Cal has one leg shorter than the other, Becky has the ability to sense the dead, and Felix’s head wants a traditional family life, but his heart wants something else. Over several decades, and two wars, their lives entwine together in the small Ohio town of Bonhomie, but secrets emerge that have ramifications down the generations.

Having never read a book by Ryan before, I picked this one due to the recommendation by Ann Patchett. Ryan’s writing reminded me of Elizabeth Strout or Anne Tyler, both authors I really love. The book is long, but I felt engaged throughout, and as the family saga developed I occasionally found myself crying. This is a beautiful novel that for me is about how people can have multiple sides to them that may be left unknown, even to those closest to them.

This is well written but I did not find it a good read for me. In places it was very turgid reading and although the two families lives are exposed I never related to any of them as real people. The story does bring in some interesting facts about the period of WW1 and WW2 that I had not known which was good it also detailed very clearly the way that people lived back in these periods and how they derided Becky and her knowledge.
It is a very long book covering a long period of time and I read to the end hoping that somewhere I would get the feeing that I was enjoying what I was reading instead of doing it as a labour so that I coud give my true review.
This would appeal to someone who loves reading about family lives and in its way was similar to the Downton Abbey story which has made an amazing TV series and a film. SO although I did not enjoy it I do understand that it appeals to lots of others.

This book isn't for the fainthearted, it is a long, although beautifully written, saga of two families stretching four decades, the timeline is interesting following important events that occurred in that era.
Cal Jenkins didn't have a good start in life, born with one leg two inches shorter than the other, many things were off limits for him, it was brought home sharply when war broke out and he was unable to enlist. Nevertheless, Cal fell in love with and married Becky Hanover whose father owned the hardware store in Bonhomie, a small mid west town. Becky was thought strange by a lot of people, she was able to contact the dead, she didn't charge for her services because it brought comfort and closure to a lot of people.
Skip was born a short time later, their family was complete, Becky was warned by the doctor not to have any more children.
Margaret Anderson had been abandoned as a baby, brought up in an orphanage, Margaret was determined to forge a future for herself. Margaret met and married handsome Felix Salt and shortly afterwards Felix enlisted in the navy. Felix returned home battered and traumatised, his ship had sunk, many lives were lost......Tom was born nine months later.
Skip and Tom were at school together and although Skip was older he was very protective of the much smaller Tom and they became friends, their families were intrinsically entwined.
Patrick Ryan's timeline follows the lives of ordinary people as they face the trauma of wars, it has friendships, love, lies, betrayal and secrets, he addresses many emotive subjects with sensitivity.
This is a very well written book with well rounded characters and historical facts, perhaps a little too long for me but it was worth the time it took me to read it.
Thank you Net Gallery and publishers for this ARC, this review is totally voluntary.

I was intrigued by the premise of Buckeye, although I hadn’t heard of Patrick Ryan before, so I decided to give it a try. Overall, I enjoyed the read, though I found the pacing a little uneven in places and felt it could have benefited from some judicious pruning.

The story centres around two couples—Cal and Becky, and Margaret and Felix—whose lives intersect during World War II and again during America’s involvement in Vietnam. On the surface, their only connection is the friendship between their sons, but a buried secret threatens to unravel both marriages. Cal, unable to serve due to a physical deformity, remains home while Felix joins the Navy aboard a cargo ship. Years later, their sons follow in their fathers’ footsteps, serving in Vietnam, echoing the generational weight of war and consequence.

Buckeye is a quietly ambitious novel that explores how personal choices reverberate across generations. Though its pacing may test some readers’ patience, the emotional depth and historical scope make it a rewarding read for those who appreciate character-driven storytelling with a touch of the uncanny.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7850280625

https://maddybooksblog.blogspot.com/2025/09/buckeye-by-patrick-ryan-i-was-intrigued.html

Patrick Ryan's novel "Buckeye" is one of my favorite books of the year. I just loved this wonderful story, 464 pages, often heartbreaking but also funny, at it's heart how our longings and one single action can cast a shadow over several peoples lives forever.. Loved his writing, reminding me of John Irving and Ann Patchett's work but with its own distinct voice. I fell in love with all the four main characters and their flaws very quickly. The book follows their lives and interactions from childhood in the 1920ties in small town America until the 70ties.

Cal Jenkins, born with a short leg, his future wife Becky Hanover, a bit of an oddball who can see the spirit of dead people, stunning redhead Margaret, who grew up in an orphanage marrying handsome Felix Salt. Their marriage is full of secrets yet provides a stability they had both longed for. When WWII breaks out wheels are set in motion altering their previous conception of themselves seriously. Highly recommend, was sad when i turned the last page.

I found this rather slow and mediocre in its writing. The story was rather mundane, covering a long period of time the families and the relationship of their offspring. Just nothing really grabbed my attention and all a bit depressing really. Not really for me.