The Lucky Place

Whew... finished. I have refused to give up on reading a book since A River Runs Through It (possible summer reading choice in high school - chosen for Brad Pitt, but given up for fly-fishing), but this one nearly did me in. It's not that it wasn't interesting, because it really was... interesting. Well, first, a description.

Zu Vincent's The Lucky Place chronicles the life of Cassie, a little girl who is trying to find her place in a grown up world without getting lost... again. As the story begins, Cassie is three years old and at the racetrack with her Daddy and brother. As Daddy wins his bets, he drinks, gives away money to the crowd and eventually, when walking up to the window for a payout, he lets go of Cassie and she is lost. Soon Mama meets a new man and Cassie must learn how to have two daddies, Old Daddy and New Daddy. The book is told from Cassie's perspective as she ages from three to twelve and as she matures in understanding of the world.

An excerpt: a short chapter entitled "A Thought" (page 90 - also in the book cover)
Here's what I think. I think having two daddies is like riding the elephant. You don't know until you get up there what an elephant smells like, or how high you will be on the elephant's back. But then you realize. And the basket tips one way and then the other, like you might fall, every time the elephant steps.

When I enter the classof2k8 second quarter contest, this was one of the books that I learned about and was interested in reading. The first chapter captured my interest. Unfortunately, I was not as thrilled by the book as a whole. I completed reading The Lucky Place because I was interested in Cassie's life and what was happening in her family, but books are told in a variety of ways, and this one was told by explaining the scene and the emotions behind it without much in the way of dialogue. For a story about children (eventually there are four main children in the novel), there should be a lot of dialogue. But for some inane reason, these children just understand each other without speaking or scenes between the children are glossed over to get to the adult scenes that are described to the wallpaper.

I think I would have liked this book better if it had used a different storytelling technique, but the storyline itself was good, the characters were easy to picture through their descriptions (as I cue Kate Voegele's "No Good" to describe Old Daddy), and Cassie was easy to root for. I wish I had liked this book enough to think I will read it again, but as least I am happy to have finished it and gotten to the end which was satisfaction (not the very end - slightly cheeseball - but before that).

A-Z Challenge
completed - *Vincent, Zu - The Lucky Place*
currently reading - *Oates, Joyce Carol - Foxfire*