Lottery Book

Throughout the first quarter or so of the book, I thought it was going to be just another lightweight, insipid story about the triumph of the underdog. Well, it is kind of about the triumph of the underdog. It is about the triumph of the human spirit. And it really is about what really constitutes intelligence. And how great a part does our intelligence play in making us the best humans we can be.
I was worried that it would just be another "don't judge a book by it's cover" parable. And in a sense it was. But it was also about whether or not someone with limited intelligence can, nonetheless, possess great wisdom.
Okay, enough with that crap. The point is, that once my ears stopped burning from the nearly constant swearing in the first few chapters and frequent swearing throughout, I fell in love. (The swearing did seem pointlessly overdone, IMHO.) I fell in love with Perry for his open heart and mind. I fell in love with his Gram for teaching him the things he REALLY needed to know to survive in a world that would not be kind to him. And I fell in love with Keith for being just like so many men I've known in my life who have made hard choices, sometimes wrong choices, who are almost never politically correct or even socially acceptable but who have the best hearts in the world.
I wavered between giving this book 3 or 4 stars because it is a bit lightweight and it is a bit simplistic. I gave it 4 because this month, with all the stress of the holidays and other things in my life, I really, really needed to meet Perry and his Gram and Keith and Gary and Cherry. I needed to read something where good just simply comes out on top. I needed an excuse to laugh and cry within minutes. I think there is probably a time in everyone's life when they need that.