Dedicated to all who feel blurbs are rubbish (Back Roads - Tawni O'Dell)

Member Name: chris105

Product:	Back Roads - Tawni O'Dell
Date:	13/03/02 (204 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: stunning readability, gripping tale

Disadvantages: it ends :-(

There's only so much propaganda a man can take before he falls for it. Or something of the sort, anyway (it sounded smarter before I wrote it down, somehow...). So after reading Trevor15's elevation to sainthood of this book, BACK ROADS by Tawni O'Dell, and then his recommendations in his profile page that we should do a favour to ourselves and read it, and then his stunning review in his (equally stunning) website, Book Realm Reviews, I just had to read it.

For a change, a book that I had high hopes for did not disappoint. BACK ROADS is all that it has been made out to be, and more. If anything, the blurbs on the cover (and Oprah's seal of approval... [sigh!]) do not do it justice. Indeed, had it not been for Trevor15's recommendations, I would have skipped this book, seeing as the blurbs sounded suspiciously like the mass-produced mellowy "captivating read" sort. That's the power of dooyoo for you, ladies and gentlemen.

Anyhows...

BACK ROADS is the debut novel of one Tawni O'Dell, an American (shock! horror!) journalist by training who, as the St Petersburg Times tells us, "became a writer the hard way... [f]or ten years, her office was her kitchen table." Overcoming my guttural aversion to American novels, I plunged into the back roads of western Pennsylvania and was, to paraphrase a blurb, "captivated".

Harley Altmeyer is anything but your average 18-year old. Living in near-abject poverty, he has recently been saddled with the responsibility (for which no 18-year old is equipped) of raising 3 younger sisters and taking care of their (unpaid-for) house, paying the bills/mortgage, cooking, since his mother killed his father and landed herself in jail. All his plans for the future are smashed as he holds onto 2 jobs to try to make ends meet, alternating (and at times juggling simultaneously) the roles of father, mother, guardian and elder brother, being both carrot and st
ick, to his sisters. Meanwhile, Harley's hormones are also screaming for attention, and an older married woman living nearby, mother to one of his youngest sister's friends, introduces him to a hitherto-unknown world.

I'm afraid the summary will end here, since (as every review of this book seems to point out, and for obvious reasons) the plot - while not a thriller - is so full of 90 degrees turns and twists that any more information would totally ruin the story for any potential reader. Yet take my word for it, nothing is as it seems at first sight. Indeed, from early on in the story we start to realise that Harley isn't totally well-balanced emotionally and psychologically, and his court-appointed psychologist, Betty, is pivotal in bringing this out.

I presume it must be very difficult to portray in writing the mental imbalances in a character without going over the top and ending up with a nutcase. O'Dell manages it though - which is even more astounding given that this is her first novel. The insights into Harley's mind, and his fantastic mood swings guaranteed to make alkaliguru jealous, are superbly described. Actually, "described" isn't a word I'd readily use about this book; "lived" would be more appropriate (excuse the cliche'...).

O'Dell's journalistic background may account for the style of her writing, which reads very much like a well-woven mix of fiction and non-fiction. The themes of the book are journalistic too - though I can't reveal which themes these are (strange as it may sound for a book op!) since they are central to the twists in the book. The surprise element is the theme itself, as it were. What can be said, though, is that BACK ROADS can be read at so many different levels: it's part indictment of the American gung-ho attitude to gun ownership, part assessment of the "dysfunctional" (another blurb...) rural American family, part e
xpose' of the poverty still too rampant in the world's richest country, part overview of the inadequacies of the West's criminal-justice and penal system, especially when it comes to catering for innocent but nonetheless affected juveniles. And so on and so forth.

But don't worry - you shan't be reading a sociological thesis. This book is a gripping page-turner if ever there was one. It's a particular book, and I daresay it shan't please everyone. To give you an idea, it's the kind of book I suspect Jill* would enjoy, though I'm not so sure whether it'd be up Malu's* street. And I'm curious to know whether pje* liked it (I've a sneaking suspicion he did).

If (when) you read this book, please say hi for me to Harley, Amber, Misty and Jody... they're characters who linger long after the last page has been turned. Speaking of which, the ending is one of those achy endings where you're left with a tear in your eye and a wishful determination to know what will be of the Altmeyer family, post-BACK ROADS.

------------------------

* Oops! I've been name-dropping again! Sorry dooyoo-meisters...

Summary: