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Earnestly narrated by brain-damaged
16-year-old Earl “Earwig” Gunderman (“Ma
said that after the fever was gone, my brain was like meat
cooked too long, and it just fell apart whenever I tried
to learn something new”), Kring’s heartfelt debut
explores the effects of WWII on a smalltown Wisconsin family
Earwig, whose intellectual difficulties
are balanced by his sharp emotional intelligence, gets a
significant assist in the growing-up process from his older
brother, Jimmy. But after enlisting in the National Guard
on a drunken whim, Jimmy is shipped out with one of the
first ill-equipped units to be sent to the Philippines.
When his unit is overrun in Bataan, his fate is assumed
to be grim.
At home, Earwig sighs about rationing,
discovers a dark family secret and hopes for Jimmy’s
safe return. And Jimmy does come home, but, shell-shocked
after years as a POW, he drowns his sorrows in drink. It
takes Earwig’s devotion and a tender new relationship
with young widow Eva Leigh to turn him around.
Kring’s narrative is familiar
at first, but hits its stride after Jimmy’s homecoming,
capturing family tensions and the divisive town dynamics
when Jimmy and his fellow soldiers criticize the government
for abandoning them in Bataan.
Strong characters, a clear community
portrait and a memorable protagonist whose poignant fumblings
cloak an innocent wisdom demonstrate Kring’s promise.
-- Publishers Weekly
Delta,
$13 paper (270p)
ISBN 0-385-33813-9
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