Perry L. Crandall knows what it's like to be an outsider. With an IQ of 76, he's an easy mark. Before his grandmother died, she armed Perry well with what he'd need to know: the importance of words and writing things down, and how to play the lottery. Most important, she taught him whom to trust, a crucial lesson for Perry when he wins the multimillion-dollar jackpot. As his family descends, moving in on his fortune, his fate, and his few true friends, he has a lesson for them: never, ever underestimate Perry Crandall.
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Perry Crandall is a Forrest Gump-like character, a man in his 30s with an IQ of 76 ("slow, but not retarded" he often reminds the reader), living in Washington State with his grandmother after being pretty much abandoned by his mother. After his grandmother's death in the early on in the story, Perry tries to honor her memory by keeping to their traditions -- learning a few new words from the dictionary every day, buying a pack of donuts or cinnamon rolls from the Marina Handy Mart every morning, and with those morning hunger busters, five lottery tickets.
The lottery reminds me of Gram. When we would buy tickets she would say, "You know, Perry, life's all just one big goddamn lottery. Some of us have brains, some of us don't. Some people draw cancer. Others win car accidents and plane crashes. It's just a lottery."
I like to think that Gram was happy. I did not win the brains lottery, but I won the other kind. Then I start to wonder. Is there a happiness lottery too? A sadness lottery? Does God sit up in heaven drawing numbers for people? Like for Keith? Like for me? It makes me wonder about God. Is everything in life just numbers?
It's one of these lottery tickets that brings $12 million into Perry's life. Perry suddenly finds himself having to quickly learn who to trust and how to best use his new fortune.
Money has made the slow part of me not so important.
>Perry
It doesn't take long for his brothers (or cousin-brothers as he calls them, since he didn't grow up with them) and his mother, who never gave him the time of day before, to suddenly come calling offering to "help" him manage his fortune. They try to use Perry's naive nature & low IQ against him, pestering him to sign Power Of Attorney papers, swearing it's "in his best interest".
Perry soon picks up on his family's true intentions, so he puts his trust in his best friend Keith and his boss, Gary. After wining the lottery, Perry fears he may be fired from his job -- which he loves -- at Holsted's Marine Supply, thinking that his boss may "give my job to someone who needs it more now". Not only does he get to keep his job, but he comes up with a number of ingenious ways for Gary to bring even more business to the store!
While this novel was partly inspired by author Patricia Wood's own father being a Washington State Lottery winner, I also found commonalities in tone between this and the novel The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time by Mark Haddon as well as the 1936 Gary Cooper film, Mr. Deeds Goes To Town. Perry creates his own little "family" with Keith and Cherry, the cashier at the Marina Handy Mart Perry has a crush on. Keith and Cherry are good, mostly honest friends to Perry. Keith helps him get his first big lottery purchases -- a 27" flat screen tv, a cable subscription with Animal Planet, and a warm green coat with a hood. :-) I also liked how Perry, Keith and Cherry all end up reading The Sea Wolf, my favorite Jack London novel! The best though was how Keith gives Cherry a hard time about all the romance novels she reads, she challenges him to try one rather than just assuming they're all crap, and he ends up getting addicted to them! X-D As far as the relationship between Keith and Perry, initially I liked how Keith seemed to have Perry's back, protecting him from the money vultures, but later on some of Keith's actions had me questioning the friendship a little bit.
I did like this story but it didn't pull me in as much as I was hoping / expecting. Perry is a good guy, has some sweet, endearing moments... and some really sad ones. I especially felt for him when he confesses how lonely he gets. But really I didn't find myself getting super attached to any of the characters, the closest being Cherry. She seemed to have an interesting backstory but the reader only gets brief glimpses of her story and her inner character. There were also no big surprises in the story. I guessed most of the major plot twists within the early chapters. I was a little surprised at how dark the story got near the end, but that was about it for unexpected excitement. Still, a sweet story that reminds the reader what's truly important in life.
Also, thanks to this book I think I will now always remember that a synonym for true or honest is echt (because Perry uses it a lot LOL). So there ya go, Scrabble players!
There was one thing that Gary said that was not true. Everything Gramp worked for his whole life was not gone. Gramp worked for me.
I am still here.
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