Faded Genes by Patrick Girondi
Danny Hubble is a middle-aged insurance agent with an ordinary life in Pittsburgh until his whole world is suddenly turned upside down. Danny’s diagnosed with terminal leukemia, and his only hope is a bone marrow transplant. He has a peculiar genetic makeup, which his geneticist describes as having “faded genes,” (hence the title) making it nearly impossible to ever find a compatible donor. When Danny discovers his biological father, who he has never met, is living in Italy, he travels there searching for a miracle.
If you read Patrick Girondi’s earlier book Flight of the Rondone, a non-fiction story about his extraordinary battle with big pharmaceutical companies to save his son’s life, you know Girondi is a very unusual, very unique author. Faded Genes (Skyhorse Publishing) is a novel which uses the same medical theme and takes it in a totally different direction, with Danny in a race against time to save his own life.
Not Your Average Cast of Characters
Danny himself is a very sympathetic character. He’s 47 years old, runs the same insurance business his family started, lives with his mother and the one thing he truly excels at is softball. In fact, he pitches three no-hit innings in a game just before he collapses and discovers his illness.
Just as interesting is his best friend, identified only as PatG, who travels with Danny to Italy searching for a cure. Presumably, PatG is named after Patrick Girondi himself. He’s a wonderful character who likes to sing in clubs and bars throughout the book. Patrick Girondi also has a side career as a singer. It’s pretty unusual to put yourself into a novel as a major character. But, like I said, this guy Girondi is a very different kind of author.
Danny is surrounded by a group of other extremely entertaining people in this novel too. There’s his chain-smoking mother who watches wrestling videos; his devoted office assistant Irene; his sometimes girlfriend Marla; and another bizarrely interesting close friend besides PatG in Kevin, who spends much of his time drinking and sees himself as some kind of a sage.
Danny eventually meets another whole group of colorful people in Italy — many of them relatives he never even knew existed before, but who he forms strong relationships with. He also finally confronts the father he never met or heard of until now in a series of dramatic moments that could spell life or death for Danny.
Yep, it’s a wild world Girondi has created which surrounds this seemingly average innocuous insurance man named Danny Hubble.
A Story for Multiple Mediums
There’s another very unusual thing about this book too. It is also a screenplay. Yes, once you’ve read the book, you can read a screenplay of the whole story afterward. Girondi does a fascinating job of creating some of the scenes from the book in the screenplay. Clearly, he also has a movie in mind to tell the Danny Hubble story.
But probably the most remarkable thing about Faded Genes is the lessons Danny learns along the way during his journey. Not just about the medical cure he is seeking, but also about Italian culture and about life itself. By the end of this book, in a poignant, perfect ending, Danny Hubble is a different man than the one he was back in Pittsburgh.
If you find yourself reading a lot of books these days that sound the same, try Faded Genes. It will surprise you.
About Patrick Girondi:
Patrick Girondi, originally from the South Side of Chicago, is an Italian and American singer-songwriter, author, and founder of San Rocco Therapeutics, a gene therapy company focused on bringing a safe and accessible cure to Sickle Cell Disease and Thalassemia patients. Girondi has released seven music albums and Skyhorse published his Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller Flight of the Rondone and New City.
