The miserable little rural town of Cedar Hole is the perfect setting for the miserable, down-trodden, backward thinking people who reside there. Poverty, desperation, hopelessness, and a total lack anything outside the immediate locale is the backdrop for this story, and the rather jarring first few pages is an appropriate introduction to the plot. One of the most hilarious characters is the local school teacher, Delia, who manages to disregard every teaching rule and etiquette ever established. Another is Miss Kitty, the insecure librarian. Ms. Doyon has an astonishing ability to create unlikable characters and make them loveable.

While this book has an abundance of interesting, slightly weird characters, it actually revolves around the lives of two men, both raised from childhood in Cedar Hole. Francis, the youngest child and only son in a family of eight children, lives his life in competition with Robert, a child who was born with the ability to make and achieve goals, and to do the right thing. The competition seemed hopeless, as Francis has none of that ability and, in fact, his childhood experience assured that his every effort was just, that hopeless. Whenever there was a prize to be won, Robert was the winner. Whenever anything good actually occurred in Cedar Hole, Robert was the one who achieved it. Robert was the town hero, the greatest man in Cedar Hole, all of his life.

Francis, on the other hand, lived with a dark cloud above his head. His family life was horrible. His best attempts failed. His best intentions came to nothing.. Anything he did manage to achieve took hard work and effort, and he didn't achieve much even so. But Francis had something that Robert didn't have, although he didn't realize it – an ability to look outward to really see and understand others. This is mostly and beautifully shown in a chapter about his association with an elderly couple, and kudos to Ms. Doyon for her perfect creation of those characters and their relationship with Francis as a young boy, and later as a grown man. You will love then ending.

This is a book that one will read again and again, a classic.
Review by Litera Scripta