Review: An engaging and sweet story
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 29, 2012
I was very pleasantly pleased with this purchase. Besides being a lengthy book, the 99-cent price (at the time I bought it) made it an incredible bargain. The story has genuinely interesting settings and events, colorful characters, and some genuine heartfelt emotions. By the time I got to the end, I loved it. By Amazon's rating standards, that warrants five stars. While it's not a highly-refined literary masterpiece, the story does pull you along in an engaging fashion, and leaves you smiling and wanting just a little bit more.James Taylor (please don't call him "Jimmy") just returned home to Lawder, the small southern town where he grew up. He left earlier to make his way in NYC as a motion picture promoter, and had a string of successes, but when everything he valued fell apart, he returned home. A dead lover, his failure at being a friend, betrayals from others he considered friends, he returned shell-shocked and quetioning all that he believed, and just wants to stay in Lawder for a while to regroup under the care of his mom, the one person left whom he could trust. But there's one shock left for him upon his return. One that threatens to ruin the security of home that he so craves. His mom, Bea, runs a landscaping firm, and her head employee (Kevin), the person she adores as another son, is the junior-high bully nicknamed "Brick" that used to torment James and make his life miserable. James' most painful moments as a child were a result of the merciless tormentings and beatings from Brick, one of which even required a hospital visit and stitches. Because Brick is so apologetic, James must try to reconcile this long-carried hatred, and this turns out to be just the first step in his healing process.The story is told in third-person perspective centered on James and those immediately around him. It's more than just a story of James' healing, it's a story of his personal growth. Whether it's the revelations that he's making the same mistakes he made in NYC, or that he's searching for things he already has if only he would just stop and look, it's a lengthy journey that takes place over the better part of a year.They characters are genuinely colorful, interesting, and even lovable. From his straight-talking mother to his neighbor (and exotic-dancer) Stephani to the pot-smoking, gay-friendly, ex-Ranger police captain Jerry to the bitter, cruel, and troubled homophobic teenage boy Cory, the story is filled with wonderful characters that delight. The events that occur are the typical events of any small southern town. Picnics, guys' night out at a strip club, poker games... everything that happens is basic and real and just what you'd expect in any small town. What brings them to life are the characters, and by the time the book is finished, you'll wish you could meet some of these people. Strong language and adult situations are kept to a minimum. There is use of alcohol and marijuana in the book and some graphic descriptions of a few body parts (like when they went to a strip club), but there is no erotica and the previous examples are kept in a light, and very often humorous, tone ("Please please tell me I did not tickle our Chief of Police last night while I was drunk!"). Yes, there's quite a bit of humor in the story too, making it all the more entertaining and enjoyable.The writing style is pretty simple. Events are told clearly, and there's only a few small grammatical errors. Peppered through the book are a few moments when the writing does transcend and become something more, and as a whole, it works very very well. It's a friendly, unpretentious style, like an old familiar friend, and this makes it easy to fall into the story and become quickly engrossed. All in all, it's a welcome and pleasant surprise and I heartily recommend it.