Bart Yates

Set in 1962, fifty-something Julianna Dapper escapes from a mental hospital in Maine, “borrows” a car, and begins a journey to the midwestern US, accompanied by two young men. One is a fifteen-year-old black youth she mistakes for a childhood friend and the other is a seventeen-year-old hitchhiker running from troubles at home. They are pursued by the law and their families. It is a picaresque adventure, full of over-the-top action scenes and a string of improbable coincidences.

I liked the depiction of the unlikely friendship that formed among three diverse individuals. Other than that, I do not have much positive to say about it. Everything is exaggerated – one of the main characters is too saintly and the villains are too evil. There are many plot holes and anachronisms. It is filled with violence and racial scapegoating. For me, it is a failed attempt to combine tragedy and humor, with the humor generated at the expense of a person with mental illness.
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When Nathan Bishop's brother Tommy informs him at the last minute that he's coming to visit for the weekend with some friends from the city, Nathan can't help but groan and roll his eyes. But even though he knows it won't be all fun and games, he's hardly prepared for everything that the weekend will bring - not only in terms of confronting his past (and his brother's) but also for their present and their future.

There's a lot in this book that pushes boundaries and it's nothing if it's not an emotional roller coaster. But it is very well written and it tells a story that I think could move a stone. I wanted to reach into the pages and change the course of events so many times, but I knew they were headed the way they needed to go.

Content warning: mentions of incest, child abuse, statutory rape, suicide

(Aside: I wasn't very keen on the author having a character use 'retarded' as a pejorative. I could have just chalked that up to a method of demonstrating the character's ignorance if it wasn't for the fact that he used the term himself in a similar way in the dedication at the beginning of the book.)… (more)