Review: Intense and wonderful
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 22, 2014
Much like some of my friends, this book was NOT at all what I expected. There was a depth to it that the blurb simply can't convey. It was filled with humor, don't get me wrong, but it was just as much filled with anguish. When everything is said and done, the heart of this book is the love between a father and son, and 'Shaking the Sugar Tree' shows that love in all of its complexities.Wiley is a thirty-something gay man living in Tupelo, Mississippi. If that wasn't hard enough, his nine-year-old son, Noah, was born addicted to meth. Noah is deaf, has physical deformities, and has some learning impairments. But watching the interaction between father and son was heartbreakingly beautiful. Wiley was two years into college when he published his first novel, and that was the same time Noah was born. Wiley dropped out of college planning on being a full-time writer while taking care of Noah and all of his needs. Life didn't turn out exactly as he planned. His next three books didn't do very well, and caring for a meth addicted baby was no easy task. It was day and night, night and day, of a screaming, crying, puking, pooping, peeing baby who didn't understand the withdrawals. I can't imagine how that must have been but the fact that Wiley was so determined to care for his son, to not give him away, even though Noah's mother simply left, made me love Wiley even more.Wiley has a part-time job as a cashier at a grocery store. There aren’t many job opportunities in Tupelo and Wiley does what he can to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. He gets no support from his mother, his brother, or his sister-in-law. And, I'm not talking about financial support, I'm talking emotional support. No one ever offers to take Noah for a day so Wiley can get a break. Instead everyone talks about "poor Noah" that "poor, poor boy" because his mother was a meth head and his father is gay. I was surprised that Wiley could still find humor in anything, although his was tinged with bitterness sometimes. I was impressed with how Wiley never took any of the bad sitting down, he fought back, determined that his mother, his family see who Noah is and not just what he is.One day a Yankee named Jackson comes through Wiley's checkout line. Poor Jackson. From Boston to Tupelo. Talk about a major cultural difference. Was it too much to hope for that Jackson could be the one that Wiley and Noah needed? Except Jackson wasn't as perfect as he seemed and just like everyone else, sometimes he made mistakes and poor choices. And Wiley had to learn that dreams don't just happen, they take work.This was an intense book that I'm really glad I had the opportunity to read. Having grown up in the South, the rhythm of the story, the characters, and their lives was deeply familiar to me. I fell in love with Wiley and he will remain a favorite of mine. At the end of the day, this is a story about a father and a son, and a love I couldn't begin to imagine.NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews