Tag: abandonment

When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt (J)

When Zachary Beaver Came to Town    

Kimberly Willis Holt

Nothing ever happens in Antler, Texas. Nothing much at all. Until this afternoon, when an old blue Thunderbird pulls a trailer decorated with Christmas lights into the Dairy Maid parking lot. The red words painted on the trailer cause quite a buzz around town, and before an hour is up, half of Antler is standing in line with two dollars clutched in hand to see the fattest boy in the world.

It’s the summer of ‘71 in Antler, Texas and the biggest news in town was Cal’s brother, Wayne, serving in Vietnam and Toby’s mom, Opalina, going to Nashville to compete in the National Amateurs’ Country Music Competition at the Grand Ole Opry. Those two things alone were enough to keep the town’s tongues wagging for a while, but then along came that white trailer carrying the world’s fattest boy. Just two dollars and you could gawk all you like. It doesn’t seem like anything could top this, but Toby Wilson and Cal McKnight are two teenagers in a small town so you can bet that adventure—and trouble—aren’t too far behind.

With her National Book Award winning novel, Kimberly Willis Holt takes us to small town America in the early 70s. A time when the country was embroiled in the Vietnam War, the local cafe was where you went to get updated on all the latest news, and there was nothing so bad that eating a snow cone with your best friend couldn’t make right. Holt’s downhome, folksy writing immediately sets a tone of comfort, familiarity, and inclusion for her readers and instantly makes you a part of this tight-knit town that boasts the Wag-a-Bag, Bowl-a-Rama, AND Wylie Womack’s snow cone cart. What more could a town need?

Holt explores so many important and relevant themes that often (and unfortunately) go unexplored in today’s stories for young readers. It’s the subtle niceties that bear no monetary value that seldom makes it to the written page: allowing a person to maintain their dignity, extending a stranger common courtesy and respect, and accepting loss and defeat with grace and valor. Kindness, decency, and friendship serve as the foundation for When Zachary Beaver Came to Town, but Holt also shines a light on the selfish side of human nature and how easy it is to put our own wants and desires ahead of what is right—regardless of the consequences. She also explores a number of relationships in her book with each one offering readers a valuable lesson in forgiveness, humility, and empathy.

Two teenage boys learned so much when Zachary Beaver came to town, but perhaps the most important were that friends don’t snitch on one another, you always stick up for those who can’t defend themselves, and you never, never turn down the chance to dance with the girl of your dreams…especially when a song by the Carpenters is playing.

Rating: 4/5

* Book cover image attributed to www.goodreads.com 

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A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

A Reliable Wife

A Reliable Wife

Robert Goolrick (Adult Fiction)

Ralph Truitt was fifty-four years old, rich, and alone.  He had been alone for twenty years and if the loneliness didn’t kill him, then another year in a bleak and barren Wisconsin winter might.  So, he placed an ad in the Chicago paper: “Country businessman seeks reliable wife.  Compelled by practical, not romantic reasons.  Reply by letter.”  He received many responses, but it was Catherine Land’s letter that he would choose.  He had read it so many times, he knew it by heart.  It was the first sentence that piqued his interest: “I am a simple honest woman.”  But letters can be deceiving and all this “simple honest woman” wanted—ever wanted—was to acquire both love and money.  Catherine would not live without some portion of both and Ralph Truitt was the ticket to her dream.  With a beautiful face and a sympathetic backstory, she was well on her way of inheriting a vast fortune…unless Ralph Truitt had other plans.

A Reliable Wife is one of those books that if you don’t stick with it, you would simply give up on it and unapologetically mark it as “Did Not Finish”.  With its foreboding and depressing backdrop of a 1907 Wisconsin winter, to its flawed and morally corrupt characters, to its underlying themes of lust and sexual fantasies, it really takes a herculean effort to weed through all of the debauchery and depression.  Thankfully, a nice story twist about midway through the book rewards those who stick it out and marks the beginning of several plot turns that will keep the reader’s interest and make the remaining scenes of lust and unrequited passion a little more forgivable.

The story centers on three main characters: Ralph Truitt, Catherine Lane, and Tony Moretti (Ralph’s illegitimate son).  All three do their fair share of whining and complaining and mourning a past that is lost and hating themselves for who they might have been.  Interestingly, I found Tony’s character the most sympathetic of the three, although Goolrick paints him as the antagonist.  He is the only one who truly deserves to feel betrayed and abandoned and can safely shroud himself in the term “victim”.  Don’t get me wrong, all three have their reasons to mope and feel wronged by life, but only one trophy can be awarded and I don’t give out participation ribbons so Tony gets the prize.

Robert Goolrick gives us a tale of regret and remorse and poses the question of how far would someone go in order to make a person love them?  I enjoyed this work far more than his book Heading Out to Wonderful, which I only gave 3/5 stars.  Unlike the latter, A Reliable Wife felt consistent all the way to the end and proved to be a suspenseful and compelling read.

I’ll end this review with four important takeways that I learned from A Reliable Wife: 1) If you live in Wisconsin, get out of Dodge before the first snowflake falls.  Winter marks the beginning of crazy season and you’re apt to either kill yourself, kill your family, kill yourself and your family (not in that order), or maim yourself (and possibly your family); 2) If your mother is a fanatical religious zealot, chances are you are going to grow up to be a hot mess; 3) A promise is a promise.  No matter how ridiculous, immoral, unethical, or illegal the promise is, you have to keep it.  No backing out.; and 4) Money doesn’t bring you happiness.  No matter how good looking you are, well educated, worldly, well-spoken.  It doesn’t matter.  You are going to be miserable so just pin that badge to your chest and wear it proudly.  So take a lesson from Ralph, Catherine, and Tony, just live a poor life in the tropics with a good therapist and don’t ever, EVER, make any promises.  You can thank me later.

Rating: 4/5

*Book cover image attributed to www.target.com

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The Lost Mother by Mary McGarry Morris

The Lost Mother

The Lost Mother

Mary McGarry Morris (Adult Fiction)

It’s the Great Depression, and everything that Henry Talcott owns or is most precious to him is contained in a single tent—his knives, saws, and cleavers as well as his two young children, Thomas (12) and Margaret (8).  Henry slaughters animals for a living, but work is scarce and money is getting harder to come by.  His wife, Irene, abandoned the family years earlier and now Henry finds himself having to leave his children alone more often as he travels to find work.  When his wealthy neighbor, Phyllis Farley, begins to lure his children to her home as a means of providing companionship for her wheelchair-bound son, Henry’s firm hold on his family slowly begins to loosen.

The Lost Mother is an aching, somber, and dark novel about a father’s desperate attempt to keep his family together while two young siblings grapple with their own feelings of loyalty, love, and loathing toward one another.  Morris’s book overflows with passion and her multi-dimensional characters evoke myriad emotions from her readers: pity for a single father doing his best under the most hopeless of circumstances; disdain for the crooked shopkeeper who swindles an honest boy; sympathy for a little sister enduring endless verbal and emotional assaults from her brother; contempt for a wealthy neighbor and her disingenuous benevolence; and disgust for a beautiful mother who callously abandons her children for a better life.  Morris is able to successfully rein in all of our feelings while maintaining the story’s momentum by centering every action around a recurring theme of home, family, and togetherness.

In the song “You Always Hurt the One You Love”, there are lyrics that accurately describe several characters in this book:  You always hurt the one you love/ The one you shouldn’t hurt at all/ You always take the sweetest rose/ And crush it till the petals fall.  These characters love so deeply and wholly that they simply cannot recognize the negative impact that their behavior is having on those closest to them.  But despite these flawed characters, Morris gives us a ray of hope through Henry and his children.  Together, the three of them manage to rise above their circumstances and prove that they are much more than society has labeled them.  Henry, Thomas, and Margaret Talcott remind us that worth and security are not something that you hold in a wallet.  Instead, the greatest treasure is sometimes found in a pair of arms that are opened and are waiting for you…just for you.

Rating: 4/5

*Book cover image attributed to www.amazon.com