Stack of Spines

Patricia Wood created a world so real that I wanted to look Perry Crandall up in the phone book and take him out to lunch.  His life is tragic, but also beautiful and innocent at the same time.  Perry is honest and loyal and understands the bigger picture better than anyone around him, contrary to their beliefs.  I think that element is what captivated me the most; just because you’ve been around longer or went further in school does not necessarily mean you have it all figured out or those with less experience than you are in any way less valuable.  Wood accomplishes this gently and with a knack for subtlety.

There are so many well done life lessons in this book that I don’t think I even got them all.  I would have loved a book club discussion about Lottery and I was amazed at Wood’s ability to highlight both the good and bad parts of humanity while begging the reader to ask the larger question of what you’d do if you were Perry’s friend.  So many people think they would act one way, but would they?

Perry starts off as so young and naive and vulnerable with a touch of autonomy and then is abruptly forced to navigate life on is own; I held my breath while I wondered how he’d manage but I now realize I should not have doubted him in the slightest.  Perry is more than capable to handle what comes to him and likely understands more about life than I do.

I did a little snooping on other reviews and was disappointed to learn some thought this was “Forrest Gump wins the lottery.”  The two characters and their experiences and support systems are so far apart that I believe that generalization is unfair.  The only thing Forrest and Perry have in common is that they’re both “slow” (what does slow really mean though?) and both have a good sense of humor.

Lottery should be a staple for High School and/or College reading.  I listened to this on audio and the narrator is fantastic.  It is so much more than a typical underdog story.  I implore everyone to bump this up in their reading queue.