Singing Boy: A Novel

I would give this book 5 stars for writing. It's a wonderful character study and very enlightening as to the varied ways people grieve. I didn't, however, LOVE the book, largely because I just didn't like two of the main characters very much -- the mother and the boy. The mother just seemed a bit too self-absorbed and the son a little too "perfect" to be realistic. The third main character, Deckard, I was very fond of and I cared so much about what happened to him.

I found this book's characters to be very interesting and quirky. I wanted to get to know them better. It is a story of the different ways people deal with their grief. It is a coming-of-age story for Harry, a recovery story for Sarah, and throw Deckard, a Vietman vet into the mix and it makes for an intriguing story. I would be interested to read some of his other books.

I don't have any strong problems with the book; I don't have any particular praise. It's 300 pages of how a wife, son, and best friend deal (or mostly doesn't deal) with the death of her husband/dad/friend. There's not really a cheerful page in the book, yet even though it deals with an emotional topic, I never felt emotionally connected to the characters. The story and extremely limited plot line does use the 3 main characters to show 3 very different reactions to grief and different ways to deal with death. It was just ....... okay.

The tragic death of a husband and father and how the wife and son deal with their grief. It was very close to what I felt after my mom died, very believeable.