Being with Henry
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
The car lurches to a halt.The old man finally rolls down his window, studies Laker for one eternal moment while his daughter, behind the steering wheel, fumes and listens to the radio. Laker stands, shrunken and zipped and snapped and collared inside his damp, sweaty leather jacket, and then he hears this unexpected question: Do you do yard work?
Kicked out of his house, sleeping on the street, Laker Wyatt meets eighty-three-year-old Henry Olsen, a lonely widower with family troubles of his own -- a bossy daughter and a beautiful granddaughter, Charlene, with whom Henry admits he doesn't always get things right.
Eventually, Laker's stay with Henry leads him not only to the revelation of a long-kept secret, but to a deeper understanding of the mysteries and difficulties of love.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Though Brooks (Bone Dance) develops a poignant relationship between a runaway teen and an octogenarian widower, other elements of her story--the awkward structure, improbable plot and stereotyped minor characters--ultimately undermine the novel. For instance, after establishing a leisurely pace in the first chapter, in the following chapter, the author moves the protagonist through an entire year in the space of four pages. Readers may find it challenging to follow Laker Fontaine's 16th year as he moves jerkily along through a series of dramatic turns. When he gets into a brawl with his verbally abusive step-father, in defense of his mother, the woman kicks him out of the house. Laker then boards a bus to the town of Bemidji, where 83-year-old Henry takes him in despite protests from his overbearing daughter. During the next several months, Laker and Henry come to rely on each other: Laker offers Henry companionship; Henry, in turn, gives Laker a sense of security and enough freedom to mull over his past and make decisions about the future. Shifting between third-person narrative and cryptic journal entries penned by Laker, this novel relies heavily on coincidence and catastrophe. Readers will be all too aware of the author's hand in directing Laker's fate. Ages 12-up.
