The Smallest Color

by Bill Roorbach

A suspenseful first novel about two brothers and the thirty-year secret between them. Our secrets can come to define us, and sometimes after lying asleep for a long spell, a secret can awake frantic and hungry. Coop Henry's secret needs attention. His missing brother haunts his life and his life isn't holding up well under the strain. When his mother threatens to hire a detective in one last desperate attempt to discover what has happened to his brother thirty years before, Coop's life begins to come unglued. Not even a glimmer of new love in his life can rescue him. It may be that only his missing brother holds the answers --and that possibility is devastating, to Coop and to nearly everyone in his life.

Genres: Fiction, Book Club

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Bill Roorbach's newest novel is The Remedy For Love, coming October 2014 from Algonquin Books. Life Among Giants, also from Algonquin, is in development for a multi-year series at HBO, and won the 2014 Maine Literary Award in Fiction. Big Bend: Stories has just be re-released by Georgia in its Flannery O'Connor Award series. Temple Stream is soon to be re-released by Down East Books. Bill is also the author of the romantic memoir SUMMERS WITH JULIET, the novel THE SMALLEST COLOR, the essay collection INTO WOODS. The tenth anniversary edition of his craft book, WRITING LIFE STORIES, is used in writing programs around the world. His short fiction has been published in Harper's, The Atlantic Monthly, Playboy, and dozens of other magazines, journals, and websites, and has been featured on NPR's Selected Shorts, and won an O. Henry Prize. He lives in western Maine where he writes full time.

For more information about Bill Roorbach, see www.billroorbach.com, www.lifeamonggiantsthebook.com, and be sure to enjoy his blog and videos at www.billanddavescocktailhour.com. Follow him on Twitter: @​billroorbach.

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best novels I've read in a long time. The narrator's two voices (at almost 16, and 30 years later) and the two parts of his life are woven together with amazing skill, and the exploration of how events in the past define and inform our current selves was riveting. Plus, the narrator was just so darned likable, with all his flaws and fears and hopes and mistakes. I got it from the library, but have ordered a copy for my husband for Christmas.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of this book is set in Colorado, but there are interesting references to the Seattle area and northwest Washington. At one point “Grandma” is taking her grandson on a ride through the University of Washington arboretum. She shows him the low clearance bridge under which she once jammed a rental truck in 1969. This is a reference to an actual incident that happened in 1968 when I was a student there. A student, driving with a rental truck, took a shortcut through the arboretum and jammed it under the bridge. It’s odd, but interesting, that the author knew of this accident and decided to make reference to it in his book.

[Lanyashia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hodge was the obedient favorite child of him and his brother he then disappeared into the crowd during a protest in 1969. One day Coop is on a road trip with his dad when they got into an argument about him having a long hair Coop goes to a dinner and finesse the waiter into getting a free meal. When he returned to where the car was his dad drove off and someone tells him they left and he said they're not coming back till he cut his hair. He decides not to go get his hair cut and wait but to look for his brother Hodge. Throughout the story, we see flashbacks of 16-year-old Coop on a dangerous and uncertain mission during the chaotic time era of the '60s. This stressful trip that took him across the country turned him into a criminal that then goes to jail when he escaped he was now a fugitive.

Now as a 40-year-old he is discovering his wife that is also was the key part of that summer is cheating on him he develop feelings for co-workers. These memories and the truth is lurking on him after many years his parent finally hired a detective to find the whereabout of their lost son which coop and his wife only knew whether he’s dead or alive.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

The reveal of where his brother really disappeared to, as well as the good writing on the way to it kept me reading. I like this author and am waiting for a copy of his newest book, Beep. Many of Coop’s thoughts and descriptions are addressed, I thought fondly, to his brother. Not sure if I liked the ending or accepted it well.

[Mary]

I like this Maine author and have read many of his books. Read this while waiting for his newest book to be returned to my library. Enjoyed the writing,

[Kate Larkindale · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is among my all-time favorite books. Set in two eras, it follows Coop through the summer in the 1960s when his brother disappeared and again when he's in his forties and the trauma of that summer begins to haunt him all over again.

The two stories weave together seamlessly and the author skillfully manages to capture the voice of sixteen-year-old Coop as well as the older, more world-weary one without making the two seem like completely different people. The older Coop isn't the nicest guy and some of his choices are seriously fucked up, but when viewed in the context of what happened years before, they are completely true to his character.

The depiction of the sixties and the counterculture movements that swelled in strength during this time is vivid and feels wholly realistic. As does Coop's devotion to his brother, the older figure he's wanted to be like throughout their childhood. Together they have survived and defied their overbearing father and it is this that bonds them as they travel through that last summer together. The summer that lead to the disappearance that continues to haunt Coop's life.

When his mother threatens to hire a detective to try once and for all to find out what happened that summer, Coop must face up to what happened before the secrets he's been holding for 30 years tear him and the life he's built apart.

Beautifully written and with an intriguing mystery at the center, this book will keep you turning pages long into the night.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I hope there is another novel in the works by Roorbach. His writing is direct and strong while still humanly vulnerable and told in an often tender voice,a contrast to some of the events taking place on the page.
The main character (Coop) recalls events from his past and is living the present in light of those experiences. As the pages turn, Coop becomes aware of his need to let the past be just that. He can do so only by telling a truth he has struggled to hide to try and protect people he loves. As the saying goes, the truth will set you free. You want freedom for Coop and you understand the difficulty that telling the truth can be, but he gets you there, and you'll enjoy the story in between.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half. Roorbach makes some beautiful structural moves with this novel, paralleling the stories of a young man and his older self, weaving them together as they collapse into the single event (and, later, the memory of it) that has irrevocable impacted his life--the memory of the smallest color of the smallest day. I thought the developing plot of the older self dragged at times, but the strong craftsmanship held my interest nonetheless.

[Alex Luhtjarv · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually thoroughly enjoyed this book. The characters were rich, enough plot twists to keep me engaged throughout. I wish they had gotten to the 'secret' earlier, but a well-rounded start to my summer book pile.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suspenseful novel about an aging baby boomer and the secret he carries from his hippy past.

[Daniel Woodward · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent novel about complicated family relationships. Mr Roorbach is a perceptive and compelling story teller. I am looking forward to reading his latest book