Like The Body in the Ivy, which I read just before, this novel simply ended too soon. It was almost as though the author got bored around page 288 (out of 320) and said "All right, let's wrap this up. I have no idea what a good ending would be, so let's kill off __________ , work in a hysterical run through Manhattan at night and end up ____________________." Don't worry, no spoilers. Spoilers would mean the story had a conclusion that revealed something. This one has a conclusion. Sort of.

Some parts of this novel were incomprehensible -- the author sets them up as earth-shaking revelations, but once he moves on to the next point in the narrative, I'm thinking "What was that?" Pages 92 to 318 (!) have us wondering whether George will be remanded to the dreaded Forest Glen mental asylum, or even worse, a juvenile detention facility. The threat follows George and his mother like a stalker-cloud, and resolves, but again, sort of. This book contains heroes and villains, but all seem to bear a "Lite" modifier. Justin Evans (as George) clearly doesn't have much respect for the psychiatric profession, whether it's the sympathetic Richard in his cardigan, the cold and autocratic Dr. Gilloon, or the therapist he turns to as an adult, addressed throughout in the second person.

It's clear that the author's objective is to make the reader think. What's your take on the unexplainable? he's asking, followed by Is there an "unexplainable?". We are naturally sympathetic to 11-year-old George, and find ourselves firmly in his corner throughout all his trials. We want to believe his story. But if George were testifying in court as a defendant, what would we think of this same narrative if we were on the jury or reading about it in the paper?

In this respect, Justin Evans does a bang-up job. His prose is excellent. My favorite quote:
"This is how things happen -- summertime and excitement and play and then you come home to the shock and the lightning bolt, and find your life has become an undesirable story, the one people hear about and feel glad they're not in, and you never realize how lucky you'd been the moment before."

Mr. Evans has a second novel coming out in May, called The White Devil, and I will certainly read it. I hope one day he will follow in Stephen King's footsteps and re-publish A Good and Happy Child with 100 or more "lost" pages added back in.