Fiction or Fact: Lottery
I found Lottery by Patricia Wood sitting on the new fiction shelf at the library. I'm always looking for good novels that feature characters with disabilities- and this is the best one I have read in years.
The hero of this refreshing novel is a man named Perry L Crandall. He tells us the story of his life. He sets a tone from the first page when he tells readers the most important thing, “I am thirty-two years old and I am not retarded. You have to have an IQ number less than 75 to be retarded. I read that in Reader’s Digest. I am not. Mine is 76.”
The next thing he wants you to know is that he won twelve million dollars in the Washington State Lottery. First-time novelist Wood has crafted a defining story. She has taken a character that at first does not seem to be someone we know. After all, how many of us really know people with cognitive disabilities? But she masterfully finds the commonality in this likable character. Perry loves, longs, and laughs. He does best with routine and predictability but he manages to navigate his way though his unusual life and circumstances by listening to his heart. His Grams, who dies early in the book, taught him many things, including how to save and spend, literally and figuratively. She tells him that’s “it’s very important to think of your future, because at some point it becomes your past.”
Her words of wisdom foreshadow the conflicts that come when she dies and when he wins the lottery. She knows he is suggestible (one of his words of the day) and they make a list of whom he can trust. His family is not on the list. But his friend Keith is and so is Gary, the owner of Holsted’s Marine Supply where Perry has worked since his grandfather taught him about boats. When his beloved Gram dies, his half-brothers sell the house they shared from under him and kick him out with $200. It is hard to read when you start to personalize through Perry what happens to adults with disabilities all over the country. Wood makes us uncomfortable but still wanting to discover what will happen next.
This could have been a bitter book, about how family and friends can be spiteful, prejudiced and horrid. But it’s not. Perry does not become like them. He maintains his wonderful sense of self throughout the book. He doesn’t want revenge or to keep all the money for himself. He wants to be with his friends, he wants to be in love, he wants to be part of the store’s success. He wants a good life and he has one.
It’s rare to see the main character be an adult with disabilities. It’s a fine line between making them someone we pity and someone who inspires us to be ourselves. It might challenge some readers to look at their own negative beliefs, name-calling, and other derogatory remarks towards people who may (or may not) be mentally retarded. Perry shows us that even our assumptions that all people with cognitive challenges are the same needs to be challenged. Perry is clearly a well-defined individual and deserves our full attention. As you can imagine, winning the lottery brings out the hunger in others for his money and he has to learn to manage this new role. His true friends, Keith, Gary and Cherry (the young woman he loves but who loves Keith) help him as they expand their own perspectives about Perry. For instance, without his money, would Gary consider having someone like Perry become an active business partner?
You’ll have to read Lottery to find out what choices Perry makes and just what the L. in his name stands for. It’s worth the time.
The hero of this refreshing novel is a man named Perry L Crandall. He tells us the story of his life. He sets a tone from the first page when he tells readers the most important thing, “I am thirty-two years old and I am not retarded. You have to have an IQ number less than 75 to be retarded. I read that in Reader’s Digest. I am not. Mine is 76.”
The next thing he wants you to know is that he won twelve million dollars in the Washington State Lottery. First-time novelist Wood has crafted a defining story. She has taken a character that at first does not seem to be someone we know. After all, how many of us really know people with cognitive disabilities? But she masterfully finds the commonality in this likable character. Perry loves, longs, and laughs. He does best with routine and predictability but he manages to navigate his way though his unusual life and circumstances by listening to his heart. His Grams, who dies early in the book, taught him many things, including how to save and spend, literally and figuratively. She tells him that’s “it’s very important to think of your future, because at some point it becomes your past.”
Her words of wisdom foreshadow the conflicts that come when she dies and when he wins the lottery. She knows he is suggestible (one of his words of the day) and they make a list of whom he can trust. His family is not on the list. But his friend Keith is and so is Gary, the owner of Holsted’s Marine Supply where Perry has worked since his grandfather taught him about boats. When his beloved Gram dies, his half-brothers sell the house they shared from under him and kick him out with $200. It is hard to read when you start to personalize through Perry what happens to adults with disabilities all over the country. Wood makes us uncomfortable but still wanting to discover what will happen next.
This could have been a bitter book, about how family and friends can be spiteful, prejudiced and horrid. But it’s not. Perry does not become like them. He maintains his wonderful sense of self throughout the book. He doesn’t want revenge or to keep all the money for himself. He wants to be with his friends, he wants to be in love, he wants to be part of the store’s success. He wants a good life and he has one.
It’s rare to see the main character be an adult with disabilities. It’s a fine line between making them someone we pity and someone who inspires us to be ourselves. It might challenge some readers to look at their own negative beliefs, name-calling, and other derogatory remarks towards people who may (or may not) be mentally retarded. Perry shows us that even our assumptions that all people with cognitive challenges are the same needs to be challenged. Perry is clearly a well-defined individual and deserves our full attention. As you can imagine, winning the lottery brings out the hunger in others for his money and he has to learn to manage this new role. His true friends, Keith, Gary and Cherry (the young woman he loves but who loves Keith) help him as they expand their own perspectives about Perry. For instance, without his money, would Gary consider having someone like Perry become an active business partner?
You’ll have to read Lottery to find out what choices Perry makes and just what the L. in his name stands for. It’s worth the time.
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