Fireworks

Elizabeth H Winthrop
2006
ISBN 0 340 92130 7

Hollis Clayton is facing a long, bleak summer. His wife has gone - gone away to think, to see if their marriage is worth saving, his relationship with Jack Daniels is fast becoming the most immediate in his life, and he seems to have picked up a stray dog somewhere along the way.

The story is interspersed with random recollections, including the death of his son and how he and his wife retreated from each other, in between the haphazard relationship with his girlfriend, his attempts at getting past his writers block, and spying on the neighbour's kids.

Funny and sad at the same time, Hollis is wrapped up entirely in his own world and his perception of it, a lot of which struck me as honest - everyone is the same. I found the writing easy to fall into, and each memory was both touching and more or less relevant to the story in general.

The ending served to reinforce the idea that, rather than a story, this is a nonstory, a section of a man's life, and I found myself hoping that things ended positively.

Date Finished 27/09/07
Year Total 31