Sunday 23 December 2007

Book ~ "The View from Mount Joy" - Lorna Landvik (2007)

From Amazon.com ~ Opens as Joe Andreson transfers into a Minneapolis high school as a class of '72 senior. Like everyone else, Joe has a major thing for head cheerleader, Kristi Casey. Joe gets some action but is estranged from Kristi by graduation. As the years pass, and they stay in touch sporadically, Joe, who narrates, can't quite let go of his infatuation. He becomes an innovative grocer, still unmarried at mid-book, and Kristi transforms into a Bible-thumping radio/televangelist. Joe builds solid relationships with his mother and her new husband, and reconnects with high school friend Darva Pratt (who returns to town with her daughter, Flora), while Kristi sets her sights on the White House. Landvik deftly mixes humor and pathos in Kristi's ditzy On the Air with God radio show, starkly contrasted by her quietly powerful portrait of Joe, a man with real family values.

We follow Joe as a high school hockey star to a father of three, with some interesting adventures along the way.

I enjoyed the writing style and humour in this book. I wasn't crazy about the On the Air with Gord radio show bits but I realize why they had to be there.

I'd recommend this book.

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