Lottery

Lottery 
By Patricia Wood (320 pages)
Published by Putnam
Bookish rating: 3.25

Set in working-class Everett (Washington State, y'all), Perry--a man with some sort of developmental delay or intellectual disability--wins the lottery. Suddenly, his indifferent family moves in to capitalize on his sudden fortune.

Overall, the book is not bad. All the elements are there, I suppose. And it was reviewed oh so very highly. But I dunno. The voice of Perry is very distinct, which is good, but he has a Forrest Gump-ish quality that reminds me of literature's tendency to idealize a marginalized set of people. Sort of how the early writings of gay and lesbian lit portrayed hyper-romanticized ideals, when same-sex relationships still involve PEOPLE and are therefore also prey to, like, PROBLEMS.

Which is a long-winded way of me saying that I'd rather see a character with an intellectual disability who also has some traits that are BAD. The innocence of children? Well, maybe, but children can also be little shits. Let's see more of that.

The writing registered a tad bland for me, and I was ready for the book to end. Were there aspects I liked? Yes. Exploring the effed up nature of money from the perspective of someone who doesn't give much of a hoot about it is interesting. Lots of well-developed characters . . . but I was just sort of bored. Not really recommended.