| Description: |
|
Product Description
Howard Kapostash has not spoken in thirty years. The small repertory of gestures and simple sounds that he uses to communicate lead most people to assume he is disturbed. No one understands that Howard is still the same man he was before his tragic injury. But when he agrees to help an old girlfriend by opening his home to her nine-year-old son, the presence of this nervous, resourceful boy in his life transforms Howard utterly. He is afforded a rare glimpse of life outside his shell ? with all its exuberant joys and crushing sorrows.
Amazon.com Review
Peel back the made-for-TV-movie premise of Dave King's The Ha-Ha and you'll find a shrewd, engrossing, and occasionally gritty first novel in the tradition of Jane Smiley. Howard is a brain-damaged Vietnam vet who can't speak or write, but who has managed to establish a reasonably good life in his small Midwestern hometown. In fact, Howard's chief limitation isn't his silence but his lingering romantic attachment to his high school girlfriend, Sylvia, now the drug-addicted single mother of a nine-year-old boy named Ryan (not Howard's child). Accustomed to Howard's devotion--and equally accustomed to rejecting his love, like a campfire she pees on again and again--Sylvia more or less dumps Ryan on him when she is forced to enter rehab. Yes, the handicapped vet must forge a relationship with the sullen fatherless boy. With material as Hallmark-tinged like this, it's only through vivid, honest, and far from syrupy characterization that King keeps sentimentality at bay. You can predict what happens when the gruff Howard begins to coach Little League (aw, shucks), but not his ferocious reaction to Sylvia's eventual betrayal. A skillful debut with several surprises. --Regina Marler
|
| Reviews: |
|
Daisy (USA: IA) (2007/04/26):
I really liked this book. I rated it 8.5 out of a possible 10 at my book group.It's a very intellectual read. The characters are very compelling. Take a day off, brew a pot of coffee, and spend the day in your favorite chair, this book demands your attention.
Jeannie Dick (USA: MS) (2007/10/25):
This was my favorite book last year. It brought to my attention a subject I had never pondered - what do you do to communicate when all is lost to you? He could not read, write or speak, due to a head injury in Vietnam. Think about it! This book is full of interesting characters who live very ordinary lives. Amazingly insightful and you just keep wondering how the writer knew so much about this situation. I absolutely loved it. See what you think.
|
