Patricia Wood creates a lovable underdog
This wonderful first novel is about a guy who starts off with all the chips stacked against him and comes out a winner. It's an underdog novel, and the underdog is a most satisfying hero, for more than any other protagonist, the underdog is the one we love to love.
Perry L. Crandall, the underdog of "Lottery," is profoundly lovable. He says he is "not retarded. You have to have an IQ number less than 75 to be retarded," he explains. "I read that in Reader's Digest. I am not. Mine is 76." This one-point distinction is important to Perry. The underdog, who is also sometimes cast as literature's knowing fool, has a corner on the truth, and Perry understands exactly how dangerous and wrong such labels can be. He doesn't like "retarded," but "slow" he can live with, and slow, as we know from the example of the tortoise, always wins the race.
All the familiar ingredients are in this novel: the slow guy with the heart of gold and the disquieting habit of seeing things (and people) for what they are, the unscrupulous family, the unsuitable but loving friends. The antidote to these cliches is a kind of winning particularity. Patricia Wood's portrait of Perry is so vivid, funny, poignant and joyful that it avoids the flatness of the predictable.
Abandoned by his parents at birth, Perry is raised by his loving, wisecracking grandmother in Everett, Wash. There isn't much money, but they have a happy life governed by simple pleasures -- bingo, Friday night movies, Sunday night spaghetti -- and a sense of their own good fortune. The "L" in Perry L. Crandall, Gram tells him, stands for Lucky.
Gram knows what Perry needs. She makes him read the dictionary to arm him against the world, one word at a time, and she fills his head with useful advice. Perry has a job at Holsted's Marine Supply, where he is watched over by Gary, who owns the place, and by his friend Keith, a swearing, alcoholic, downward-spiraling, shell-shocked Vietnam vet with a broken heart. Next to Perry himself, Keith is the novel's most bravura portrait. It's hard to make readers like a fat loudmouth with sinkhole breath, but Wood has done it.
Gram dies early in the novel, leaving Perry as a young adult to the evil devices of his creepy mother, his sharky brothers and their harpy wives. Perry loses nearly everything before his luck turns.
When he wins $12 million in the state lottery, his awful relatives and plenty of strangers are on him like glue; suddenly, everybody wants to befriend him, and no one uses the word "retard" anymore. Perry may be slow, but he has the wisdom of Solomon and the heart of a lion. And his decision about what to do with his winnings, while it may not surprise readers, still feels satisfying.
Some bitter soul may complain about the novel's upbeat ending, but Wood seems to understand that such an ending need not be a dodge. Instead, it can reveal a path, one lit by the good intentions of a pure heart. Perry L. Crandall is the thinking man's guide to a happy life.