This was an odd and ultimately unsatisfying book, as Watson was playing with an unusual format. To give him full credit, he does, a few pages in, warn the reader (through his narrator) “…if you are one of those readers who must have all your questions answered, you must set this narrative aside immediately.”

Basically, this is a mystery story, though not a whodunnit. We know whodunnit, because on page 11, we are told that a man named Ray Stoddard shoots and kills a man named Monty Burnham, and then goes home and hangs himself in his garage.

This action, and its effect on Stoddard’s family and friends, echoes throughout the rest of the book as his teenage son Gene and Gene’s best friend (the unnamed Narrator) in particular, attempt to make sense of the murder and to reconstruct their lives around the echoing crater it has left in their world.

The book bounces around in time, moving from the Narrator’s past to the present day, and imagined scenarios from the past that would explain or motivate Ray Stoddard’s actions. Now a mildly successful writer of fiction, the Narrator imagines scenes, dialogue, inner thoughts, decisions, and detailed histories of the players in this deadly drama. The simple visual device of setting these fictions in italic type cues the reader that these sections are all speculation. Even given that, it’s difficult to keep straight what the Narrator is actually sharing from his real life and what he is displaying from his imagination.

And – as promised (threatened?) in the beginning, there is no clear resolution. We really don’t know whether it was sexual jealousy, a long-simmering family feud, or a larcenous business deal gone sour that motivated Ray Stoddard.

That uncertainty, of course, was intentional on Watson’s part, but it will be up to each individual reader to speculate on why he chose it and whether the experiment was a success. ( )

tackles large themes with life's small details ( )

“Sirens sound when deeds are done.”

“That which is hidden in the snow reappears in the spring.”

Those are just two of the many quotes I really liked in this book! The writing is, as usual with Mr. Watson, the big treat of this story! It is told from the point of view of a young man who's best friend's father shoots a Senator, and then kills himself. The young man is also in love with his best friend's girl. And the young man is telling it as an adult, an adult who is a writer and presents some of his ideas through short stories he has written, based on his real life experiences. The truths, and the fictions, guide the story and present a multitude of "what if's", "why's" and "how come's" behind the reasons for the murder/suicide and the paths of young love. It is quite an accomplishment that the whole book resonated deeply with me, even if some questions went unanswered.

"She glistens. She shimmers. She shines. She glistens. She shimmers. She shone, shone, shone...." ( )

From the book jacket: On an icy day in January 1961, in Bismark, North Dakota, a sixteen-year-old boy walks home from high school with his best friend, Gene. The sudden sound of sirens startles and excites them, but they don’t have long to wonder what the sound could mean. Soon after seeing police cars parked on their street, they boys learn the shocking truth; hours before Gene’s father, Raymond Stoddard, walked calmly and purposefully into the state capitol and shot to death a charismatic state senator. Raymond then drove home and hanged himself in his garage.

My reactions:
Watson writes in the first person, making this a very introspective story. The narrator is never named, though we learn that he grows up to become a writer, and some of his stories are interspersed throughout the novel. It’s clear that this event, and particularly the mystery of WHY, will haunt him, and give him material for his work for years to come.

But the narrator’s inability to let go of the murder / suicide, and his inability to connect with the people around him – his parents, his best friend, his girlfriend, etc – makes the entire novel read like an oddly unemotional third-person account. I never connected with the narrator or any of the other characters, and was left feeling “is that all?” ( )

tackles large themes with life's small details ( )