Annie Hartnett just blew me away again with her story about a 63 year old guy kind of on his last legs, a cat named Pancakes, two little kids he unexpectedly acquires due to a tragedy and his ex-wife and younger daughter. The whole story turns into a ridiculous roadtrip that happens on a whim and involves an unlikely group of travelers. PJ is a former 1.5 million dollar lottery winner. He is divorced from Ivy, the mother of his daughters. When the older one Kate died on prom night, PJ deteriorated into a hard drinking alcoholic, irresponsible, bereft and inattentive to his younger daughter Sophie, who lost her sister when she was just a tween. Sophie’s in her twenties now, out of a job and she avoids her dad. She resents him, he makes her crazy with his dependency on her mother who feed him breakfast daily and shops for him.
Ivy left PJ for Fred, a Boston judge and avid birder. He has a vacation home down the street from PJ’s and Ivy’s old house. They decide to take a multi-month trip to Alaska, leaving PJ feeling adrift and abandoned. Until… PJ reads an obituary and learns that his high school crush, Michelle Cobb, is now widowed from PJs’ rival who stole her away. PJ, who hasn’t been out of Pondville except for a brief stint in Vietnam decides he will go to Arizona, propose to Michelle and settle down to wedded bliss. Michelle’s only contact with him since high school was that she, along with her husband, sent flowers when Kate died fifteen years ago. That’s enough for PJ.
PJ has a car available, even though his eight year license suspension doesn’t expire for a few days. Fred left him his volvo to use just to run to the store, since Ivy won’t be there to shop for him. PJ answers the phone at Fred and Ivy’s house when he dropped in to see if they left any food behind. Upon answering, he finds a social worker has been trying to reach him to tell him he has been named the guardian of a grandniece and grandnephew that he knew nothing about. They need him to take them in. They are both in fourth grade, having been born ten months apart. They have lived two blocks from him their whole lives, but PJ’s brother was a very bad actor and PJ was estranged from him.
PJ is an engaging story teller and the kids like the idea of going on the road from Massachusetts to California. He somehow ropes Sophie into joining them and, at this point, two of the passengers have unrealistic goals for this trip. One that the publisher shared — PJ’s expectation he is soon to be remarried — and one that would be a spoiler. So, two little kids with serious, life-altering issues, a 63 year old alcoholic who is abruptly trying to give up beer, a daughter that cannot stand her dad, and a cat who is anthropomorphic –or at least we know what he’s thinking –all go on a trip. There is humor, pathos, some odd and some conventional tourist stops, some arguing, some coming together and a lot of uncertainty at every turn of the trip.
Hartnett creates characters old, young and cat that are unparalleled and then she makes us uncomfortable, while throwing lots of dark humor our way. She is a writer I’ve watched out for since I read her prior book, Unlikely Animals. She is quirky, emotionally intelligent, sees humor in the hardest places and creates a sense of family and a story of all four passengers coming of age at 63, twenty-something, 10 and 9. How she does this, I do not comprehend. It is magic. But when I finished, I asked myself, with a happy and somewhat tearful voice in my head, “What just happened?!” It is a highly satisfying book to read from beginning to end.
They Called me Bookworm 