4 Stars
At just over 600 pages and 261 chapters, this is for readers who enjoy a big book that blends genres: literary thriller plus crime fiction plus love story plus coming-of-age tale.
The book spans a quarter of a century. It opens in 1975 in Monta Clare in the Ozark mountains of Missouri. Saint Brown and Joseph Macauley are young teenagers. Saint is a talented pianist and aspiring beekeeper living with her grandmother; Joseph (nicknamed Patch because of the patch he wears over his missing eye) is bullied and lonely and has become a petty thief. The two become inseparable best friends. One day, after coming to the aid of a young girl, Patch goes missing. After a time, people fear he is dead, but Saint never gives up searching for him. When Patch does return, he is irrevocably changed. Saint wants to pick up their friendship, but Patch is fixated on Grace, a girl who shared his trauma and helped him survive. But is she even real? As years pass, Patch does not give up searching for Grace, and Saint does not give up trying to help her friend.
The plot is complex with the stories of various characters added, all of which come together in the end. There are certainly unexpected twists and turns, though looking back, there are subtle clues. Why, for instance, does Saint take note of the book a mother buys her son? Some coincidences irked me, especially in the later chapters. And the reader has to suspend some disbelief: a totally untrained artist dazzles the art world so much that his paintings sell for phenomenal prices and a bank robber escapes so easily so many times.
The book also offers detailed character studies. Saint and Patch are layered; both have strong principles as well as vulnerabilities and flaws. They feel like real people whom I will remember like friends I have made over time. Despite the dark tone, there are moments of levity, many of them provided by Sammy.
I loved the writing style. The author excels at interesting turns of phrase and imagery: “the sun dipped and cannoned color across the ocean” and “a great oak held bronze sky in its trusses” and “Right then mammatus clouds sagged like pockets of rainfall, the framing sky detonated like it could no longer hold blue” and “The window was tall and narrow like a letterbox flipped on its side” and “The road sliced [the everglades] without mercy, a blight on natural wonder.”
Several themes are developed: childhood trauma inevitably shapes adult lives, influencing decisions, choices and relationships; kindness and loyalty will be rewarded; and “sometimes things survive despite the harshest of odds” and “sometimes, against the longest of odds, hope wins out.”
In many ways, this is an unconventional book which may not appeal to everyone. Though not perfect, it provided me with a reading experience that will stay with me for some time.
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