A couple's foolish decision affects the lives of their children
The story of a mismatched pair’s brief career as bank robbers is narrated by their son, fifteen year old Dell Parsons, who lives in Great Falls, Montana
with his parents and twin sister Berner. Dell is shy, still physically a boy, loving school and longing
for a well ordered life.
He has begun to study chess and beekeeping, imagining participating in
those clubs as a freshman, eager to embark upon his new mature life. However, his parents’s almost immediate
arrest after their ill conceived scheme sends his and Berner’s life spinning off into other, more dangerous,
directions.
I loved this recursive novel – the story is tentatively painted, then
repainted, using foreshadowing and suspense. Right from the beginning Dell tell us what
the story will be about. The novel is a
meditation on chance, how a stupid decision can derail your life and the lives
of those you love. Many chapters end
with: And I never saw him, her, it
again. The novel was much longer than
average, but the storytelling gripped me.
The surprises are effectively doled out, especially the surprise of the mother’s
fate. Themes reoccur – the bees, the
bell on the Lutheran Church, Niagara Falls.
The casual cruelties of the townspeople are shocking, as well as the
life changing kindness of a stranger.
The book is split into two halves, recreating the same situation –
an older man, unable to recognize the boy’s innocence, trying to draw Dell into
a crime. The sorrow of losing the parents and their replacement by other much more imperfect parents. I was trying to figure out why
I loved this so much, and I think ultimately it was the characters – they were
fully three dimensional and memorable, at least a dozen of them. And they all are just trying to do the best they can.
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