An impressive debut tells of a Midwestern father on the brink of destitution and his grim efforts to survive. Two narratives alternate: One follows Henry and his son, Junior, hour by hour on the 8-year-old's birthday and into the following day, when the father has a crucial job interview. They live out of a pickup, and their money seesaws on day labor and the barest necessities. The chapter titles reflect how much cash they have, opening with "$89.34," which is followed by "$89.59" because Henry finds a quarter on a McDonald's men's room floor. Their hoard will plunge to "$17.41" when Henry treats them to a hotel room and bath ahead of the interview; the stay ends abruptly after Henry fights with another guest. The other storyline reveals how things got so bad. Henry's father must turn from teaching to blue-collar work after he hits a student. Henry falls in with a drug dealer, meets Junior's mother, Michelle, in rehab at 16, scores on a big oxy sale (chapter "$50,000"), gets nabbed, and serves five years. Then another act of violence, echoing his father's, ends Henry's messy post-jail life with Michelle in a singlewide and forces him and Junior into the pickup for six months before a final horrific episode amid the abundance of a Walmart. The novel's structure works well to track the legacy and persistence of bad choices and how they whittle down options in lives that didn't have many to start with. Guanzon tends to overwrite, but he can be eloquent regarding Henry's hard, hungry struggle: "His belt is too battered to wear to the interview, sweat-muddled and pocked with a row of holes driven through with masonry nails. A rough tally of every five pounds shed." An imperfect but compelling picture of poverty, desperation, and pain. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Guanzon debuts with a harrowing story of a man's desperation and unyielding love for his son. Single father Henry has less than $100 to his name, and he's planning on spending it on his son Junior's eighth birthday present: a night in a hotel with a real bed and cable TV instead of sleeping in Henry's truck. Recently released from a five-year prison sentence for possession of homemade fentanyl pills, Henry washes himself in the bathroom of a McDonald's and lives on junk food, while Junior's mother, Michelle, is nowhere to be found. Each chapter is titled after the dwindling amount of cash Henry has, while flashbacks show Henry's brief windfall from a pill sale and struggle to foot the hospital bill for Junior's delivery. Junior and Henry are all the other has, and Henry holds out hope that a job interview he has lined up at a call center will give them a shot at escaping their life of itinerancy. Unfortunately, Junior grows increasingly ill from their meager diet, and a violent altercation in a parking lot threatens to derail Henry's plans. Guanzon's descriptions of grinding poverty are visceral (pocket change rattles in Henry's pocket "like tiny shackles"), and Henry's attempts to fend off relentless adversity for the sake of his son are heartbreaking. This one hits hard. Agent: Chris Clemans, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Mar.)

Henry did five years downstate for moving and selling counterfeit painkillers. Now he's home, but the mother of his child, an addict herself, has taken off and he's responsible for their young son, Junior. Henry and Junior were recently evicted from their single-wide home and have been living in Henry's pickup, but things are looking up. Henry has an interview for a job that trains ex-cons for reintegration into the workforce, but getting there will be no walk in the park: Henry is working with less than $20, the truck is perpetually out of gas, and Junior is running a relentless fever. The novel plays out over the 24 hours before and after the job interview, but also jumps back in time to Henry's courtship with Junior's mom and his original arrest. Each chapter is titled, and time is tracked by how much money Henry has to his name. The stress of Henry and Junior's poverty is felt viscerally on every page. Guanzon's debut is an unforgettable portrait of incarceration's horrific wrath.