This is a lovely story of an unlikely friendship. Elliott is severely disabled and lives in an orphanage. He can't communicate easily but that doesn't mean he is down-hearted. He is clever, determined and resourceful. This book is full of fun and hope and adventure, it's also very moving.

I got a signed first edition/limited edition of this as part of my Galley Beggar buddy subscription, which I'd highly recommend to anyone wanting to support independent publishing and get some great books as part of the bargain. ( )

Two (or Three) Flew Over the Nun's Nest
Review of the Galley Beggar Press general release (grey cover) edition (2019)

This was an extraordinary caper comedy about Elliott, a boy in a wheelchair with cerebral palsy, and his blind friend Jim and how they work towards an escape into the outdoor world from the orphanage / institution where they live under the care of several nuns. I don't want to overstate my Cuckoo's Nest parallel too much, so I'll quickly say here that the nuns are pretty benign and there is no dominant evil Nurse Ratched character, although Sister Britta is the one most flagged as the disciplinarian. There is another older boy Charlie though who is a bully and the main antagonist.

The extraordinary element is that Elliott can't speak beyond several wordless approximations of language and can only slightly move one hand and somewhat jiggle his wheelchair and Jim, as stated, is blind. These two still manage to create a means of communication about which it would be somewhat spoilery to get into details. Suffice it say that Elliott is very gifted musically and is able to hum melodies quite easily and Jim is pretty good at that as well. Also there are a few reasons the book is set in 1979 in a pre-digital age. One of these reasons is that the main early Beatles Greatest Hits collections were the so-called Red Album (Beatles 1962-1966) and Blue Album (Beatles 1967-1970) issued in 1974 in various formats including cassette tapes.

I will confess to a bit of hesitancy when I started this book as stream-of-consciousness novels can often require a lot of concentration in order to keep up with the mental leaps. But it all flowed so naturally and smoothly that there were really few issues in keeping up with Elliott (who you have to accept is writing this as a memoir having the added advantage of later technological and medical breakthroughs that he refers to towards the end of the book). Also, don't be put off by the back cover blurb that refers to "30 to 40 pages of tears". This book is not a tragedy and your tears may be those of joy or laughter.

This was easily one of my top reads of 2019 and I also took advantage of a recent Galley Beggar Press sale offering to pick up additional copies as future gifts for reading friends who might otherwise miss it.

Patience was one of the selections in Shakespeare and Company's 2019 Year of Reading subscription series which is an excellent annual curated series. You can see the variety of the 2019 selections on this tagged shelf. ( )