The Driftwood Boy
Book Details
Author(s)John Anderson
PublisherJohn Anderson
ISBN / ASINB005GWE50I
ISBN-13978B005GWE502
Sales Rank1,237,844
MarketplaceUnited States 🇺🇸
Description
The Driftwood Boy is the story of a boy struggling with his awakening self in the midst of a quiet, quirky farming community in the 1980s Midwest.
This novel begins with our unnamed narrator, the boy, being stung by hornets. It soon becomes a journey of a boy in a small town. With the knowledge that at the end of the day he will be punished by his father for disobeying the rules, the boy carries a heavy burden with him as he pursues two things at his mother's request: a haircut and a gallon of 2% milk. During the day's journey, the boy bounces back and forth from the present to his memories of this place that have shaped him, and we come face to face with many eccentric characters from the boy's life, including the delightful speed freak who loves Spam sandwiches, the friendly special-needs boy who drags around a vacuum cleaner as his companion, and a large, strange woman who rages around town looking for the kids who damaged her 1976 Plymouth Duster with thrown stones.
The Driftwood Boy is drawn from reflections of the author's own childhood and inspired directly by the works of Mark Twain and Richard Brautigan, taking a humorous and bittersweet look at the lives of small town people on the verge of poverty. On the surface it is an adventure that any young boy might encounter in a small town. At a deeper level, it is an adventure of intense self-discovery and awakening. Like a piece of driftwood that floats down the nearby river, the boy is a prisoner to the waters of life that carry him forward.
This novel begins with our unnamed narrator, the boy, being stung by hornets. It soon becomes a journey of a boy in a small town. With the knowledge that at the end of the day he will be punished by his father for disobeying the rules, the boy carries a heavy burden with him as he pursues two things at his mother's request: a haircut and a gallon of 2% milk. During the day's journey, the boy bounces back and forth from the present to his memories of this place that have shaped him, and we come face to face with many eccentric characters from the boy's life, including the delightful speed freak who loves Spam sandwiches, the friendly special-needs boy who drags around a vacuum cleaner as his companion, and a large, strange woman who rages around town looking for the kids who damaged her 1976 Plymouth Duster with thrown stones.
The Driftwood Boy is drawn from reflections of the author's own childhood and inspired directly by the works of Mark Twain and Richard Brautigan, taking a humorous and bittersweet look at the lives of small town people on the verge of poverty. On the surface it is an adventure that any young boy might encounter in a small town. At a deeper level, it is an adventure of intense self-discovery and awakening. Like a piece of driftwood that floats down the nearby river, the boy is a prisoner to the waters of life that carry him forward.
