Susan Petrone

This was quite a fun romp through some Cleveland suburbs, some changing life circumstances, awkward family situations, and . . . Iowa.

Two young ladies faced with some dead-end possibilities go on a road trip with a couple of books for narrative and end up changing their lives. One pairs up with Certvantes' [b:Don Quixote|3836|Don Quixote|Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546112331l/3836._SX50_.jpg|121842] and the another, Austen's [b:Emma|6969|Emma|Jane Austen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1373627931l/6969._SY75_.jpg|3360164]. Hilarity (and eventually tragedy) ensues when each starts speaking, acting, thinking and even looking like the titular characters of their adopted books.

I'll admit I enjoy turning a page and finding a Cleveland landmark, street corner or scene that I've visited or live nearby. Author [a:Susan Petrone|1044699|Susan Petrone|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1578404936p2/1044699.jpg] does a good job of this, leading us around the Coventry neighborhood and visiting the local hospitals. Well done!

I was a little concerned that while for one character, her ending seemed to have been "written", the other seemed to have much more freedom in escaping the written ending. It didn't seem quite fair, nor did there seem to be enough grief expressed.
And separately, there are probably better ways of injecting an author's political opinions into a narrative that are less jarring. I know Vonnegut did it. . . .

But these are minor issues in a first, very fun novel. And overall, a very fun read. I finished it in an evening mostly because I couldn't put it down. I look forward to others that she's written and can highly recommend both [b:Throw Like a Woman|53283748|Throw Like a Woman|Susan Petrone|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1588000618l/53283748._SY75_.jpg|42295509] and [b:The Heebie-Jeebie Girl|50491647|The Heebie-Jeebie Girl|Susan Petrone|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1579055224l/50491647._SY75_.jpg|73072991].… (más)

This is another fantastic book from author [a:Susan Petrone|1044699|Susan Petrone|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1578404936p2/1044699.jpg]. It's a little more serious than some of her others (my two favorites are [b:Throw Like a Woman|22750212|Throw Like a Woman|Susan Petrone|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1410978653l/22750212._SY75_.jpg|42295509] and [b:The Super Ladies|37492302|The Super Ladies|Susan Petrone|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1518374406l/37492302._SY75_.jpg|59102194]), but well worth the time and thoroughly enjoyable.

Susan captures the poetry of Youngstown in a voice that from the very first page is an important character in the novel. Ohio's Youngstown provides the grey and crumbling background, both physically and morally, for the other characters in this story: Hope, Joe, Delores and Bobby. And a few priests. And nuns. And some other important people.

And because Youngstown is older than the dirt we humans planted the city on and more-present than any of the other characters in Susan's story, we catch glimpses of other lives it has known throughout the years, other people living in the city during this time and other scenes we might have missed had we not had access to such a witness as Youngstown. Youngstown has seen all of what happens above it, on it and in it and provides colorful bits of background and commentary interleaved with story of its human inhabitants.

Set in the late 1970s, Susan catches the fear, uncertainty and desperation of parts of a city facing unprecedented change as this rust belt link begins to oxidize. Hope is an eight year-old girl with the ability to move things around her and to pick lottery numbers. Joe is her uncle and Dolores is her grandmother. And Bobby? Well, Bobby plays an important but reluctant part in showing how our depravity can be exposed by the situations around us—for example, the local steel mill shutting down.

Hope picks winning lottery numbers (or does she cause them to be picked—I'm not sure we ever figure that out) and her grandma Dolores starts winning enough to attract some unwanted attention. We see the events unfold from each character's perspective and by doing so, gain some understanding of how they view their place in the story.

I'm starting to think that faith is another character in this book, although I'm not certain the characters understand that.

Some of my favorite quotes:

"There is nothing more gray than a northeast Ohio afternoon in December. The sky and the asphalt and the buildings all seem to meld into one."
"Every problem has a root cause. If you can figure out the root cause, you can fix anything."
"There are thousands of men . . . in my streets, men who wake up every day and go to work and quietly do what needs to be done."
"The sky was so cloudy and the snow was piled so high you could look down [the avenue] and not be sure where the ground ended and the sky began. It all just got mixed into one mess of white and gray."

I received an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest and frank review.
I plan on reading it again.… (más)

Throw Like A Woman by Susan Petrone
Enjoy this read because it's about baseball. A mother with two boys, divorced and she's on the baseball team and was caught throwing 82mph pitch.
It's the internet sensation. She enjoys it and the time she spent with her father learning how to do the various throws.
She was a graphic designer but after the divorce and unsure if the child support would come to pay the bills she goes back to work, data entry at the insurance company.
Dan, the ex, doesn’t always take the boys on weekends, throwing her schedule off. She's got a mom that will come over after school to feed the boys and make sure they do their homework.
Petitions are signed and she's up to try out for the Cleveland Indians and does well, well enough to get a contract, contingent on a physical.
There are obstacles and she just recalls her father’s advice
Tradition and baseball and NO female players....is some of what she's up against and her kids as she's on the road now 8 months out of the year...
She just wants a better life for them...
Received this review copy from The Story Plant and this is my honest opinion.… (más)