Book Review - Edward Adrift by Craig Lancaster

Edward Adrift
Craig Lancaster
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing; Unabridged edition (April 9, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1611099056
ISBN-13: 978-1611099058 

BOOK BLURB: The follow-up to 600 Hours of Edward, this novel revisits Edward Stanton three years after the end of the previous book and finds him in a scattered state. When he learns that his young friend Kyle is in trouble, Edward sets out on a road trip that carries him to some unexpected places—and might just deliver him to the doorstep of love.

Craig's first book was one of my favorite all time reads, and I was delighted when I finally made time to read the sequel. Edward is a 42-year-old man with Asperger's Syndrome, who is trying his best to find "normal" in a world that does not conform to this way of thinking and operating. If you've ever wondered what goes on in the mind of someone with Aspergers, Edward can clue you in, and as he reminds everyone, "I'm not stupid, I'm just developmentally challenged."

I loved Edward when I met him in the first book, and love him even more as I see how he has managed to take control of his life. In 600 Hours Edward was just coming to terms with his uniqueness and starting counseling to learn coping techniques. To see how the counseling has helped him get from there to where this new story starts is a joy, as I have come to think of Edward as a real person and am rooting for him all the way.

One Amazon reviewer commented, "... to say that this book is about aspergers (sic) syndrome, or even about a guy with aspergers syndrome is to sell it short. Really short. This book is about a guy. A fantastic guy with quirks and foibles who does the best he can to cope with his life, and who sometimes succeeds. It's a richly drawn portrait of a really, really interesting guy who you'd like to know more about, who also happens to have aspergers, which affects his personality to an extent."

I agree. While I found the insights into how his mind works, I also connected to Edward as a person, and he was just as interesting to me as some of my quirky writer friends.

Another reviewer commented that this wasn't a road-trip book, or a book about Asperger's, it wasn't a romance, it wasn't a story about triumph over adversity, and it wasn't a coming-of-age story. I disagree. It was all of those, just not in the usual style that we are accustomed to, and it doesn't fit neatly into a genre. It's simply a novel. And one hell of a story.

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DISCLAIMER: I purchased this book, and Craig did not bribe me in any way to say nice things about his writing. We are friends, but that didn't influence me either. I loved his writing before we became friends on Facebook.

Book Review - The Art of Falling by Kathryn Craft

 The Art of Falling

Kathryn Craft
File Size: 1184 KB
Print Length: 368 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1402285191
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark (January 28, 2014)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B00F3D8KKQ

What a wonderful story of celebrating life. To really appreciate the joy of living, one must first have pain, and Penelope Sparrow has plenty of pain, physical and emotional and spiritual. The journey Penny takes from the darkest moment of despair to the light of joy is not an easy one, for her or for the reader at times. The author did not pull back from the agony one feels while watching someone she loves slowly kill herself and the internal conflicts that creates.

Penny is a dancer, struggling with her self-image, struggling with her obese mother, and struggling with life in general, when she takes a fall from her 14th floor apartment window and somehow survives. But can she go on, especially since she cannot remember how she fell or what happened just prior to it?

She does, however, remember dance. She remembers taking the stage and her last dance with Dmitri, the man she has given herself to body and soul.

With the help of Marty, the baker, and Angela, a young woman who is suffering from cystic fibrosis, Penny champions her way through all the challenges of the physical and emotional trauma. The relationships with these new friends helps Penny focus on what is important, and the way those friendships grow is a wonderful layer to the story. Except for the fact that Marty in the classic screenplay by Paddy Chayefsky was a butcher, there are some subtle similarities in the characterizations. I often thought of the movie Marty when Marty the baker was in a scene in The Art of Falling. I don't know if Kathryn made the same association, but it was a nice one.

Using the themes of dance and letting the reader feel what it is like to be one with the air and the music really helped propel the story and connect the reader to Penny in an innovative way. This is a thoughtful book that one should read with plenty of time to savor the subtleties of the writing. Everything about this book is top notch from the characters, to the pacing, to the story structure, to the magical, lyrical prose.

Kathryn Craft has certainly mastered the craft of writing, and she will be my guest this coming Wednesday, sharing a charming story from her childhood. I do hope you can come back on Wednesday and meet the child who grew up to be a novelist.