Lovely Little Shelf

The Book: The Lottery, by Patricia Wood

The Story: Perry is just slow.  He’s not retarded.  Retarded is an IQ of 75 or lower and he has an IQ of 76.  His nuclear family has totally failed him but he is being raised by his spunky Grandma who keeps him on the right track and lets him do all of the things a “normal” person would do.  Because of this confidence in his abilities, Perry really does lead a fairly normal life.  He works at a fishing and hardware supply store and is friends with some of his co-workers.  He takes trips to the local diner and buys lottery tickets every week.

When he hits it big and wins the Washington State lottery, we get to find out who his true friends and family are and just how 12 million dollars effects Perry Crandell.

What I Thought: This made me think of the Blog Hop question this past week.  The question was do you like books that are more plot-heavy or character-heavy (or something along those lines)?  I answered character-heavy for sure.  That is why I can give this book such a good review.  I feel like the story really took a backseat to Perry and his family and his friends.  Perry’s character was obviously really well developed- the story was from his point of view and it only took a few chapters to really know him inside and out.  What I thought was impressive was how well developed all of the secondary characters were.  I loved the owner of the store he worked at, his friends and especially Gran.  I hated his nuclear family and thought that they were written perfectly.

I watched a show once on lottery winners and all of them talked about how after they won, people came out of the woodwork and pretended to be their friends when really they just wanted money.  I feel like Patricia Wood saw this show too and then wondered what would happen if this happened to Forest Gump.  I actually thought that that part was pretty predictable and fluffy.  I didn’t dislike it but I was never shocked by plot development or anything.

I do want to warn you : for a light, feel-good read there is quite a bit of profanity and sex.  I didn’t really think that it detracted from or added to the book in any way, I just wanted to warn ya before you pick this up to your Grandma or something…. although it wouldn’t bother Perry’s Grandma at all, as she is usually the one doing the cursing

Conclusion: A great beach read or airplane read.  It is light enough to go in and out of easily but has a good enough story and great characters that will keep you engaged and reading.  Nothing world changing, but a great book.