Susan's review
Lottery by Patricia Wood (Goodreads author!)
This is part review and part commentary about the other reviews here. Many readers compare Lottery to Forest Gump. Besides the main characters having a low IQ in common, the stories are not similar at all. Forest Gump was purposely absurd and mocked Forest’s disability, while Lottery, in my opinion, tells a genuine and believable story in a way that is respectful to Perry’s shortcomings.
At least one reader said “I freaking despise ‘Retard with a heart of gold’ stories” but read the book anyway and then proceeded to pan the book harshly. Generally speaking, for those who have strong feelings about the types of stories they don’t like to read, take this to heart…read the book jacket or the goodreads description or the review in the New York Times first. You should be able to gather enough information to gauge the likelihood it may be a book you definitely won’t like. If the likelihood is high, save yourself the agony and save the author from an unnecessary, me...more
At least one reader said “I freaking despise ‘Retard with a heart of gold’ stories” but read the book anyway and then proceeded to pan the book harshly. Generally speaking, for those who have strong feelings about the types of stories they don’t like to read, take this to heart…read the book jacket or the goodreads description or the review in the New York Times first. You should be able to gather enough information to gauge the likelihood it may be a book you definitely won’t like. If the likelihood is high, save yourself the agony and save the author from an unnecessary, me...more
