David Lampson

This book, along with it's characters, is unusual, intriguing, and fascinating.
Joe and his two brothers, one his twin, were living on their own since their parents were either kidnapped and held ransom by another country or killed in a car accident. Joe, who was eight when his parents went away forever, has not seemed to develop much since then. He lives almost strictly in the present and has a simplicity about him that is either because he's somewhat simple or because he was stunted when his parents disappeared. At the start of the novel, Joe's twin returns briefly after having left months ago because he fell in love. He wants Joe to leave with him to sail around the world, and Joe is ready and more than willing, but Avril changes his mind then disappears again.
Next Julia, the girl who Avril fell in love with, appears. She is panicky about Avril, but finds Joe's simplicity calming so she takes him from Los Angeles to Tennessee to work in her family's hotel. There, Joe works in his first job as a pool tender, makes his first friend (Julia's brother), and falls in love himself with Julia. But there's clearly something lurking underneath, even though Joe is unaware.
Again, Joe is intriguing. Each of the three brothers chose different paths as their survival mechanisms, and perhaps Joe's is the most effective. I highly recommend this book.… (mehr)

Joe's twin brother Alvin has always made Joe's life more interesting. When Alvin left for Tennessee because he fell in love with a girl, Joe found himself in a sort of holding pattern involving playing a lot of poker and eating at McDonalds every day. Suddenly, Alvin returns with a suitcase full of money and a plan to buy a yacht and sail around the world. Then Alvin disappears again, but Julia (the girl Alvin went to Tennessee for) shows up looking for him. Somehow, the end result of all of this is that Joe ends up going back to Tennessee with Julia and getting a job as a pool boy at one of her family's hotels. What happened to Alvin -- did he buy a boat and sail away? Go into hiding? Is he dead?

Joe has some sort of unspecified developmental disorder. The book's cover blurb, "Maybe Joe can't grow up -- but he can love" inevitably brings Forrest Gump to mind ("I may not be a smart man..."). He's caught up in an entire cast full of shady characters, making him pretty much the only likeable character in the book (well, Julia is at least occasionally likeable). I think I expected more of a road-trip/romantic comedy, and got more of a . . . well, I'm not sure what to call this book. I'm also not sure how to recommend it. I did enjoy it in places, though the ending got a bit too weird and surreal for me . . . and I can't really say why without spoilers, so I think I'll leave it at that, and let you draw your own conclusions.… (mehr)